Effectively and efficiently managing a budget is an essential role of public administrators. There will always be a concern on how to fully fund projects and programs with limited resources available. For this reason, public administrators must work with multiple partners to ensure that the budget is implemented responsible (Denhardt, Denhardt, & Blanc 2014). These partners might include citizens, organizations, and government officials.
The various public administration partners expect budgets to be managed ethically and within reason. These partners demand transparency, accountability and efficiency within the financial management process, which forces governments all over the world to adopt new accounting, auditing and budgeting techniques so they can improve the scrutiny and timeliness of their reporting (Marti & Kasperskaya 2015). Transparency and accountability are traits that fall within statesmanship behavior for public administrators. Statesmanship expects leaders to act in an ethical manner. Transparency provides citizens and other partners with the information that can help to hold the public administrators accountable with they are misusing funding.
One of the challenges that a statesman might face during financial management is the limited resources and multiple request for funding. There will always be a need for funding for projects and programs within the public administration field. This need can lead to money being stretched thin or programs being underfunded, which can be worse than not having funding in some cases. Public administrators must employ statesmanship while working with various partners to develop compromises on how to adaquatly and efficiently fund various projects and programs (Kioka, Marlowe, Matkin, Moody, Smith, & Zhao 2011).
Romans 12:12-13 NIV says “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share within the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. It is important for politicians to be faithful to their causes or believes, while also being flexible to understand that their way is not the only way. Rubin (2019) says that the flexibility is necessary to budgeting because it allows for some changes due to policy considerations. While we may want to fund policies that we believe in, the budget is required to work for all people. Flexibility and compromise are needed through all stages of the budget process.
References
Denhardt, R., Denhardt, J., & Blanc, T. (2014). Leadership and management skills in public
organizations. Public Administration: An Action Orientation. 7th edition, p. 323-359. ISBN-13:978-1-133-93921-4.
Kioko, S., Marlowe, J., Matkin, D., Moody, M., Smith, D., & Zhao, Z. (2011). Why public
financial management matters. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 21, p 113-124. Doi: 10.1093/jopart/muq060.
Marti, C. & Kasperskaya, Y. (2015). Public financial management systems and countries
governance: a cross-country study. Public Administration and Development, 35, p. 165-178. Doi: 10.1002/pad.1711
Rubin, I. (2019). The politics of public budgeting: getting and spending, borrowing and
balancing. (9th ed). Washington, DC: CQ Press. ISBN: 9781544325057.