Essay on the politics of public budgets

1. Emphasize the relevance of the particular case under discussion. Why should students spend their time reading it? Why is this case significant? Why is this case with this article?
The case is relevant in the sense that, it helps the students to understand what political budget appertains as well as the process and purpose of budgeting. It can be scrutinized that budgeting helps to ensure that there is a balance between public revenues and expenditure. Whereby, the government establishes a budget by first taking into consideration whether the available resources can meet unlimited public needs. Based on the case of the death of Spy Case Satellite program, it can be scrutinized that, the government incurred substantial amount of losses. This is because U. S the government used to rely heavily on nonprofit and private contractors and sub-contractors to implement all its programs. The case further identifies how the United State government incurred substantial amount of losses through the five stage budgeting process (Stillman, 2010).
The five budget processes may include: identification of revenue, identification of participant that were to be involved in the budgeting process, thirdly determining the amount of expenditure that was to be incurred. Fourthly, balancing the amount of revenues and expenditure and finally, the forth process involved putting the budget into practice. Therefore, this case is significant because it identifies the reasons where public budget failed in the United States. For instance, it can be scrutinized that the case Spy Case Satellite program and Boeing because it was underfunded as well as it was so much behind the schedule. In addition, the case provides the importance of ensuring that the available revenues meet the expenditure to avoid project failure (Stillman, 2010).
2. What is the basic sequence of events? You are addressing students who have just read the case, so this does more to remind than inform them.
As students goes through the case they can scrutinize that, in the year 2002, the United States government had started the process of building a new satellite that could help to detect any impending terrorist attacks. The contractors who were responsible for establishing Boeing satellites gave President Bush some assurance that the project could be successful only if the government could release five billion dollars to finance the project. However, after an independent body was given the mandate to examine the progress of the project, it was observed that the project was far much behind the scheduled. In addition, the project required an additional budget of two three billion dollar to be completed. After conducting other several assessments it was discovered that the project could not be accomplished. This made the government to destroy the project hence, making the U. S to incur the greatest lose in its History (Stillman, 2010).
This failure further displayed how the United States government was not in a position to manage large and complex contracts. In addition, it helped to determine that the F. IA contract could not be executed from the onset of signing the contract due flaw that influenced government budget (Stillman, 2010).
3. Highlight the key issues students should discover while reading while reading the particular case. What central problems and dilemmas for the field does it emphasize?
When reading this case, students should have discovered that the CIA constructed the new satellite in order to detect any impending terrorist attacks. Students should have also discovered the reasons where Boeing was given the contract of constructing the satellites. Addition, student should have discovered the reasons why government took a long time to end the contract even after realizing that the project could not succeed. In addition, it can be scrutinized that the government projects failed due to under budgeting as well as poor time management. For instance the satellite project was reported to have lagged behind the budget and time (Stillman, 2010).
4. Tie the case to the specific concept and article under review. What answers, if any, does it provide to the precise theoretical questions being addressed?
The case under review provides the reasons where the CIA was required to construct the new satellite urgently. The case further indicates that the government was in its efforts to equip its military with an advanced technology that could have helped them discover any impending terrorist attacks. In addition, the case answers that the contract failed due to underfunding as well as due to poor management of time and resource. In addition, the case provides answers to the reasons why the government failed to terminate the satellite project even after realizing that things were not working out as they were supposed to be (Stillman, 2010).
5. Draw some general practical conclusion from the case. On the practical level, what implications and lesions for administrators, or would-be administrators, does it contain?
It can be scrutinized that, there is a need to ensure that the budget is established in such a way that the available revenues can balance with the expenditure in order to avoid project failure. In addition, administrators should properly manage the time and resources allotted to ensure success of a program. For instance, if the Spy satellite program could have been managed effectively by ensuring that there was a proper budget in place and necessary participants, the project could not have failed. Conclusively, administrators should learn from this case and look for ways to improving their budgetary performance (Stillman, 2010).

References

Stillman, R. J. (2010). Public administration: Concepts and cases. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.