Happy New Fiscal Year.  And speaking of fiscal, let’s get things off with a bang, shall we?

At the Veteran Affairs (VA) Department these days, few folks are taking lightly the usually excruciatingly boring green eye shade aspects of the budgeting process.

Many view the budget process as quite staid, dull, and formulaic.  After all, two plus two equals four, right?  How hard can the process be where all that is needed in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division skills?

Jerry Mandel’s article in Government Executive outlines just how critical this work is, and how significant a faux pas can be.

Actually, what we have here is more than poor math.  Auditors found that some at the VA were rather slow in fessing up to Congress about some weaknesses they identified in their budget formulations.

How serious is this?  Is this much ado about nothing, or is there a systemic issue afoot?

Fred Apelquist, contributing editor