GOVERNMENT ANNUAL BUDGET | MARTINS LIBRARY

In every case, the needs and demands that make claims on the government resource according to Nwosu (1980) are limitless: yet the resource available to meet all these demands and claims are limited. There is therefore need for  a financial plan  or budget  which  not  only  mobilizes, public resources but endeavors  to allocate the  same to the competing needs of the differ  from  place to place and country to country according to  the participants in the  budgetary process, and also according to the underlining   norms, values, interest and economic goals of

the  budgetary actors.  Wealthy nations such as the United States of America,   Germany, Japan, France and Saudi Arabia are likely   to have large annual budgets. On the other hand poor states such as Togo, Republic  of Benin,  Chard,  Malairi and Lesotho have small  annual budgets. Whatever the size and content of a country’s budget it is often meant to serve as a plan of action for those who will implement it. But there is often a wide   gap between the intentions of those who prepare the budget and actual accomplishment. Although the language of the budget may require that certain objectives and goals be accomplished through planned expenditure at the end of the financial year, investigations may reveal that no funds have been spent  for  these  goals and objectives rather funds have been diverted to   unbudgeted projects or  expenditures. Some times certain stated objectives are not attended to become financial mismanagement. A government budget which is a plan for the collection and expenditure of monies needed to carry out the   social, military and economic policies of an administration (Ndan 2009). A government budget in its entire ramifications is fragile with many definitions base on the views of scholars and   administrators. Ujo et al (2001) asserted the budget is a control device used by administrators to guide them in the allocation of resources.  Further more,  (Abdullahi  2008)  seen  that the budget as a control device of specific  expenditure for projects.  In a similar view, Robins (1980)   observes that budgets are   control devices that are designed to guide the actions of a unit and to provide feedback if the budget is secured. They are the standards for comparing actual expenditure.