Reform Government Agency Spending

Liberty
1

Anyone who has ever worked in any government agency, including military, knows the way funding works is all wrong.
Currently there is a “Use it or lose it” type of stance that pervades all government organizations. Near the end of every fiscal year agencies across the country start buying supplies, upgrading office equipment, flying more training missions, whatever it takes to meet or exceed their current funding levels because of the fear that if they don’t, their funding will be cut.

This practice encourages waste and results in ever increasing budgets for every agency.

The current means of purchasing supplies and equipment seems to be in such a way that results in the highest price paid for highly proprietary expensive equipment whose quality doesn’t match.
Equipment is also purchased along with a contract to the same organization to fix that equipment when it inevitably breaks.
Imagine buying a car and the dealer that sold it to you are the only ones allowed to maintain or repair it.
Government is constantly ripped off which means the taxpayer is being ripped off.

Fiscal mismanagement is pervasive in government, but there has to be better ways to go about managing the budgets for these various agencies and there has to be a way that encourages wiser spending instead and punishing it.

3 Likes
2

My proposals:

  1. Provide bonuses to personnel down the line for money saved. So each division and subdivision receive bonuses tied to the amount of money saved. This could be for as little as turning lights off to refrain from wasteful spending. It may produce outsized bonuses in some years (can provide caps), but savings in the immediate and then longer term will be much greater.
  2. All purchasing for certain items runs through a central purchasing agency. This would include such things as letterhead, any office hardware, furniture, art, conferences for over 5 people. Create guidelines for when items can be used or spent and all purchases would require a public bidding process. The agency would be funded by the departments making the request and would not have their own budget outside of personnel.
3 Likes
3

I was going to submit a similar suggestion! :clap: I would add the following:
My suggestion to help with spending budgets so they don’t lose it or get funding cut next year is to audit when spending is made. If more than 25% (or whatever percentage amount is agreed upon) of the budget is spent in the last 60-90 days of the fiscal year, there needs to be justification why a large portion of the budget was spent in the last few months. It may be legit, but it needs to be proven there was a need.

1 Like
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Government spending needs to be tied to retail pricing for all goods and services. . The Government can’t buy a hammer for $50 if it can be purchased at Home Depot, Lowe’s. Etc for $8.

All government purchases should be ‘made in the USA’ when available.