NParks assistant director behind Brompton bikes controversy charged

[LionFlyer]

Heard excess budget is a common sight in many gov't statboards etc, TRUE?

Not really, sometimes it is just poor cash flow management in some government agencies.

Many agencies take a conservative approach to spending by deferring their spending as much as possible towards the second half of the fiscal year.

However, in some cases, they are not able to spend in time. MoF has an guideline that says that if they are not able to spend up to around 98%(might have changed) of their budget, they will get a cut in the next fiscal year as they appear to have 'excessive' budget.

See the irony? The MoF guideline was meant to rein in real excessive budgeting, but it does not deal with the root cause of it.

[yeokiwi]

Heard excess budget is a common sight in many gov't statboards etc, TRUE?

Not really, sometimes it is just poor cash flow management in some government agencies.

Many agencies take a conservative approach to spending by deferring their spending as much as possible towards the second half of the fiscal year.

However, in some cases, they are not able to spend in time. MoF has an guideline that says that if they are not able to spend up to around 98%(might have changed) of their budget, they will get a cut in the next fiscal year as they appear to have 'excessive' budget.

See the irony? The MoF guideline was meant to rein in real excessive budgeting, but it does not deal with the root cause of it.

It is ok to plan for 3 month budget in advance. But to plan for 1 year budget accurately, it is highly difficult.
Even a simple projection of yearly training budget, it is also very difficult to plan since the changes in the needs for training, time available for training and courses available for training throughout the year will derail the training budget projection.

[Big Toe]

Let's imagine the government as a listed company. Let's say it holds a monopoly of essential products and services.
When revenue/profit is substantial and can be controlled without much opposition, spending is up to their own discretion.
No one in the company will be calling for budget/spending cuts if the company is doing well.

[LionFlyer]

Let's imagine the government as a listed company. Let's say it holds a monopoly of essential products and services.
When revenue/profit is substantial and can be controlled without much opposition, spending is up to their own discretion.
No one in the company will be calling for budget/spending cuts if the company is doing well.

That analogy does not work very well because when the economy is doing bad, you WANT to government to spend instead of cut. Government spending is a major contributor to the economy as it stimulates demand. In the last few economic downturns, the Government deliberately brought forward major infrastructure projects for this specific purpose.

This case actually speaks about spending on the right thing, rather than spending more/less.

[brattzz]

back to this case,

If he has done nothing wrong, there is nothing to hide... wonder what did he get out of the 50K bike deal? :O

[countonme]

How about a free bike and a few spare tyres. I would love a free Brompton bike. To me its simply too expensive.

[pianist]

Maybe he was simply lazy to get minimum three quotes. Heard govt sector side chiak kopi tea break quite common sight. TRUE?