Courses/CS 461/Museum of unintended consequences/Budgeting policies

From CSWiki

Most government agencies are funded on an annual basis. Money allocated to the agency, if not spent during the year for which it is allocated, is not available for the next year. The idea is that the agency has a task to do, for which money is provided. The following year, its task may be different. Yet many agencies find themselves with unspent money as the fiscal year ends. Instead of leaving the money unspent, they rush to spend it. Usually there is no reward for the agency manager for doing the job under budget. Furthermore, the agency does not profit for finding ways to save money. It can't save the money. Worse (from the agency's perspective), if an agency spends less than its budget, it might find its budget cut the following year.