Originally Posted by SteveZ

I respectfully disagree. "Profit" takes many forms, and in the government world, it's promotions, power, agency budgets (the bigger the budget, the greater the staff size and image), and NO incentive to economize.

The biggest joke is the 3rd quarter of the fiscal year for government agencies. This is when the agencies review their budgets to see how much could possibly end up un-obligated (e.g., unspent) at the end of the 4th quarter. The goal is to obligate/spend every last dime, because if the agency doesn't, the next fiscal year will mean no growth (inflationary, new programs, etc.) in budget and possibly a reduction. That circumstance is to be avoided at (pardon the pun) at all costs. That's why government never costs less from one year to the next, and why agencies seem to live on long after their usefulness is gone.

3rd quarter is when the marketeers hit the agencies big-time with "unsolicited proposals" to soak up some of that un-obligated money. The government procurement offices in the last two weeks of August, all of September, and the first week of October are working at a vicious pace to get all of the fiscal year's money spent, with agencies clamoring to insure the moneys are obligated/spent prior to October 1st (the first day of the new fiscal year), because the money "disappears"from use if not spent.

It's silly, but that's the way it is.

So, just because government is "nonprofit" does not make it a better bargain. There just is no value to the appointees, senior executives and top GS's to bring their agencies/office in "under budget," and in fact doing so can be a career-killer.