Rational
The traditional public budget gave way to the program budget. The preparation of the program budget requires a thorough knowledge of the needs of the population, requires the existence of an orientation of economic and social policies with a long-term vision.
The long-term vision makes it possible to prepare short-term operational programs (annual budgets) that are oriented in two directions:
1) The general and long-term orientation regarding its public management (social and economic) and 2) The real satisfaction of the population's needs.
To identify the real needs of the population, it is necessary to establish real diagnoses (analysis of the external environment) of it, it is also necessary to identify what the government or agency has to offer products that meet those needs (internal analysis) and finally for what it is. conceived of a particular body or institution (mission).
Finally, the execution and effectiveness of the budget requires monitoring and evaluation in order to certify the correct use of resources in the budgeted programs.
Question
Considering the above rationale, the classes and the material delivered, you analyze the importance of planning in the preparation and execution of the public budget.
Reply:
In the first place, the main relationship between both terms must be considered: Planning is a means through which the State can organize itself, better investing its resources to respond to the objectives with a systematic vision and thus be able to obtain the greatest sum of popular welfare, which should be the main goal sought by it. For its part, the budget indicates the way in which the state institutions will fulfill their functions and responsibilities, diagnosing and anticipating the economic situation of the country for the corresponding period.
Four essential steps are taken into account when carrying out public planning:
In the first place, the diagnosis of the situation within the popular environment, taking into account the variables that may arise, and an evaluation of both government institutions and the rest of the associations that act around them, their capacities and deficiencies.
Secondly, there is the Forecast of the future, which constitutes the forecast, which allows to devise the possible variety of changes and the periods of occurrence of each one of them.
Third, there is the Design of objectives, defined as those goals that are intended to be achieved, to change that previously observed reality that leads to the Formulation of plans, creation of models of the practical actions that have been decided to implement.
And finally, there is the monitoring, control and evaluation, which is nothing more than the analysis of the feedback that facilitates the correction of the plans made at any point or time that is necessary. It is said that there can be no management control, if the planning and budgeting processes have not been previously worked on, hence the importance of the participation of the different actors in its development.
Consequently, the budget is nothing more than a reflection in quantifiable figures which summarize the economic, financial, and human resources, necessary to implement the tools devised through planning to achieve the objectives set. In other words, the budget serves as an instrument in the planning process by estimating the amounts that will have to be available to carry out the planned actions into practice, and scheduling the resources that will be necessary. The closer this relationship is between planning and budgeting, the greater the probability that a government will achieve its desired objectives.
The fulfillment of the planned objectives and the correct execution of the public budget would bring collective improvements. Mainly, the transparency of the management and the effectiveness of public spending would boost citizen participation for decision-making, allocation and control of the use of public resources, which translates into greater responsibility of officials and political leaders in the exercise of their functions, especially in the management of state resources, creating a democratic culture in the population and strengthening the social fabric.
All this, through the global vision of the established plan, together with the budget that quantifies the economic resources for the achievement of the ends, and the works executed in reality, being able to measure the effectiveness of these deductions through the planning process, and verify when comparing the plan, with the budget, and what has been executed, if that is the ideal way to follow to achieve the desired change, since the planned, the budgeted, and the executed, should coincide in practice.
