mck414 wrote:
Yup, throughout my Marine Corps career that's the way we did it. Right, wrong, or indifferent it's the way it is. If I didn't spend every last cent of this year's money I could expect to lose at least that much from next year's money. Hell, you were damn near considered a hero if you could overspend.
I will add, expenditures were always for something we needed, nothing frivolous, but certainly things that we could have gone without as well.
Yeah, it's pretty typical to have to produce a list of unfunded requirements at the end of each quarter and each fiscal year. Things you hadn't specifically budgeted for prior to turning in the budget plans, but found out you needed or wanted during the year. Could be as simple as a handful of extra firefighting suits on a ship, to something more complex like money for a 1 year contract to have analysts study some problem or build some piece of test equipment.
The money is budgeted by Congress, so you want to make the most of it. If you managed to save through the year, then it seems a shame to give that money back when there are good things you can do with it.
On the unit level, that's somewhat different than what this article talks about, which is about hiding cost savings to avoid losing budget money.
Slowguy
(insert pithy phrase here...)