form. Judgments about new programs are based on discussions with people involved, in which words on paper play some but not a dominant part. The budget analyst has a whole set of techniques for squeezing water out of budget requests for continuing programs; reading “decision packages” is not one of them.
Compared with the antiquated budget process which Georgia had at the time, zero-base budgeting was probably an improvement-almost any change would have been. Compared with the procedures that already are used in the federal government, it has nothing of substance to offer. The new parts are not good, and the good parts are not new.
Nevertheless, zero-base budgeting is rapidly becoming a highly prestigious term. I think there is a way of capitalizing on this prestige so as to give impetus to improvements in the budget process that really need to be made.
First, by a slight change in wording, the push behind the phrase might be transferred to a process called “zero-base review.” This is an extremely valuable part of the control process. It is used by some agencies, but it is not widely used in a systematic way. It should be made systematic and extended throughout the government.
Time Consuming and Traumatic
In a zero-base review, outside experts go into an agency, or some part of it, and carefully examine its reason for being, its methods of operation and its costs. It is a time consuming and traumatic process, so it cannot conceivably be conducted annually. Instead, each agency should be examined about once every five years. It is by far the best way of controlling ongoing programs, just as benefit/cost analysis is the best way of making decisions on proposed new programs.
Next, the “decision packages” discussed so glibly could be used to give renewed emphasis to program budgeting, in contrast to the old-fashioned line-item budgeting that persists in some agencies. Decision packages are what are called program elements in a program budget system. Budgeting by programs was a central part of what was called the PPB system, installed by Robert S. McNamara and Charles Hitch in the Defense Department in the early 1960s.
In 1965, an effort was made to extend this system to the entire government, but the extension was made without adequate preparation. Partly for this reason, and partly because it was developed in a Democratic administration, PPB was officially killed by the Republicans in 1969. (sic)
The basic idea of program budgeting remains sound, however. Indeed, in many agencies the basic idea continues to be used under other labels. The zero-base budgeting rhetoric could well be used to push for the complete installation of program budgeting throughout the government.
Third, the emphasis on stating measurable result in the budget proposal, which is implied in the form used to describe the decision packages, is a good one even though there is nothing new about it except the label. Under the term “management by objectives,” this idea has been common in industry and in certain parts of the government for years. Zero-base budgeting could be used to strengthen it, particularly to focus more serious attention on the development of better output measure.