Question

Of equal importance is the presentation of the budget. Some administrators take a hide-and-seek approach with their budget presentations. In other words, there are problem areas in the budget request, but the review committee will have to find them on their own if they can. An alternate approach is entirely opposed to this. The administrator directs the attention of the committee to the problem areas and then takes the offensive in terms of building the agency view (or spin) on the topic. In this approach, the agency position sets the standard, establishes the environment, and draws the boundaries for the committee discussion. Many administrators are more comfortable with this approach and find it to be extremely useful. It also has the advantage of better following the governance principle of transparency than does the hide-and-seek approach.

Which approach do you think is most useful? Why or why not?

Answer 1

While the alternate approach is useful for administrators as they know what the questions will be asked about, the problem with this approach is that its not necessary that all the problem areas would be given attention to, and also that all of the information may not be shared with the committee unlike the hide-and-seek method.

The hide-and-seek method is also not optimal but at least shows good governance as all the relevant information is shared and it is upto the committee to analyze and find the problem areas and question the administrator.

Out of the two, the hide-and-seek method would be more useful, and definitely the administrator should on his/her own find the problem areas and find solutions or points for them.