While the purpose of budgeting in both public and private sectors is to plan expenditures and revenues, there are considerable differences in the approach to budgeting. First, while public bodies try to balance budgets, private sector organizations aim at predicting operating results. Governmental organizations need to match the expenditures on mandated assets and services with the money they receive from the public, while private organizations use planning to estimate future profits (Kind).
Second, budgeting in the two sectors has different aims. In the private sector, the goal is to maximize the profit, while public organizations focus on providing the projected services using the allocated money (Kind). Third, the two types of organizations enjoy different transparency standards. The private sector does not need to provide a detailed budget to the community, while publically owned companies make their budgets available to anyone.
In criminal justice, there are agencies that use both types of budgeting. It makes intuitive sense that government organizations in the field such as the police, courts, and prisons, use public budgeting since they spend the money received from taxes. At the same time, privately-owned organizations, including legal aid agencies, law firms, private investigators, and security companies, aim at maximizing their profits. In short, criminal justice agencies use the budgeting system according to their aim, type of ownership, and sources of funding.
Work Cited
Kind, John. “Budgeting in the Public Sector.” Alchemy for Managers. Web.