Multiple Choice. Choose the best answer.
1. An often used approach to budgeting that simply derives the new year’s bud get from the current year’s budget is called:
a. Planning-programming-budgeting.
b. Incremental budgeting.
c. Zero-based budgeting.
d. Performance budgeting.
2. Which of the following steps would not usually be part of the budgeting process?
a. Heads of operating departments prepare budget requests.
b. Budget officer and other central administrators review and make adjustments to departmental requests.
c. One or more public budget hearings are held.
d. The chief executive (mayor or city manager, as appropriate) formally adopts the budget, thus giving it the force of law.
3. The budgeting principle in generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) for state and local governments states that:
a. The accounting system should provide the basis for appropriate budgetary control.
b. Budgetary comparison schedules should be presented as required supplementary information for the General Fund and each major special revenue fund that has a legally adopted budget.
c. Annual budgets should be adopted by each government.
d. All of the above.
4. The budgetary comparison schedule required of state and local governments by GASBS 34:
a. Can be presented as required supplementary information (RSI) or as a statement in the basic financial statements.
b. Must be a schedule included as part of RSI.
c. Continues to be a statement included in the basic financial statements.
d. Is no longer required.
5. All of the following are true statements about budgeting for performance in a governmental entity except:
a. There are few examples of successful improvements in budgeting processes that have resulted in higher quality and performance of governments.
b. The GFOA’s Distinguished Budget Presentation Award Program has spurred many governments to improve their budgeting processes and be recognized for it.
c. Some states have passed legislation that requires performance measures, both financial and nonfinancial.
d. Governments have adapted many private sector budgeting tools in an attempt to improve efficiency and deliver higher quality services to taxpayers.
6. An approach to budgeting that requires the very existence of each program and the amount of resources requested to be allocated to that program to be justified each year is called:
a. Incremental budgeting.
b. Zero-based budgeting.
c. Performance budgeting.
d. Planning-programming-budgeting.
7. A benefit of using activity-based costing in a government is:
a. Understanding and controlling the delivery/program design interaction.
b. Finding lower cost alternatives.
c. Reducing the cost of service outcomes.
d. All of the above.
8. Total quality management (TQM), a process designed to continuously improve the government’s ability to meet customer demands, incorporates all of the following elements except
a. Productivity and quality measures and standards that are meaningful to the government.
b. Adherence to a line-item budgeting and centralized management system.
c. Support and commitment of top-level officials.
d. Employee involvement in productivity and quality improvement efforts.
9. Efficiency measures, as the term is used in the service efforts and accomplishments (SEA) literature, can be described as:
a. Measures that relate the quantity or cost of resources used to units of output.
b. Measures that relate to the amount of financial and nonfinancial resources used in a program or process.
c. Measures that relate costs to outcomes.
d. Measures that reflect either the quantity or quality of a service provided.
10. Which of the following provides guidance to government managers and auditors in determining appropriate and allowable costs chargeable to federal grants and contracts for not-for-profit organizations?
a. OMB Circular A—102, “Grants and Cooperative Agreements with State and Local Governments.”
b. OMB Circular A—110, “Uniform Administrative Requirements for Grants and Other Agreements with Institutions of Higher Education, Hospitals, and Other Non-Profit Organizations.”
c. OMB Circular A—122, “Cost Principles for Non-Profit Organizations.”
d. OMB Circular A—133, “Audits of States, Local Governments, and Non-Profit Organizations.”