STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF BUDGETING MODELS WITH EMPHASIS ON ZERO BASED BUDGETING
By Michael O. Idowu
I have decided to write this piece to shed light on this topic because of need to clear some expectation gaps that may be bothering our minds regarding budgeting in this country. For instance, a friend of mind said to me the other day that life would be harder next year because the government is planning to adopt a zero based budgeting approach. That certainly is not the purpose of that model.
Simplistically, budgeting is about planning and if one fails to plan, then one is certainly planning to fail. Budgeting is a methodological way by which government or individuals attempt to breakdown their receipts and expenditure usually over a year. It is a quantifiable (in Naira and Kobo) way of expressing plans and goals. This could be further broken down into monthly, quarterly and half-yearly depending on the budgeter’s intentions.
Budgeting serves some purposes, such as:
- Planning of annual operations
- Coordination of plans
- Assigning roles and responsibilities to various ministries and departments (MDGs).
- Motivating
- Controlling and
- Evaluating performance.