OPINION:
Having worked for over 40 years for the federal government, military and civil service, I know of at least one spending problem that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy and their new Department of Government Efficiency must fix right away: how the federal agencies go on a wild spending spree at the end of each fiscal year.
Oftentimes managers beg their employees to submit requests to buy unneeded items, such as expensive new furniture or wall hangings, or to take education or training trips that are really just paid vacations. It’s Christmas on the taxpayers’ dime.
If an agency does not spend every penny by Sept. 30, it runs the risk of getting less money the next fiscal year. They also will not get to carry the unspent funds over to the next fiscal year. Instead, it will go back to the U.S. Treasury.
Imagine there was a manager at a private business with an annual budget of $100 million. Say he only spends $90 million and still gets the work done. In the private sector, the boss would be very pleased and the manager would be rewarded, maybe even promoted. In the federal government, the opposite happens.
This insane spending policy needs to be changed. One possible solution: letting some of the unspent funds (say, 40%) carry over to the next fiscal year. If even half the wasteful end-of-year spending was stopped, it would likely save a few hundred billion dollars a year.
If you keep rewarding bad behavior, you get more of it. If you punish bad behavior, you get less of it. That probably explains why my daughters turned out so well. These are strange concepts at most federal agencies.
Cmdr. WAYNE L. JOHNSON
Judge Advocate General’s Corps, U.S. Navy (retired)
Alexandria, Virginia
Please read our comment policy before commenting.