The members of the regular coffee-drinking group asked the pipe-smoker whether he had another piece of information relating to animals that he wished to share -- probably with a tongue-in-cheek attitude. He immediately replied in the affirmative by saying that he thought that it is time to consider the story of the horse and the cart.

Immediately the group were all ears and wondered what they were going to hear this time.

“It is an old story and everybody knows that the horse draws the cart and the well-known saying reminds all that one must not put the cart before the horse.” All the others expressed their surprise that such an easy statement could be the subject for discussion for today. The pipe-smoker felt that obviously everyone knows that the horse has to pull the cart and that it can never be the other way round.

He stated that in many instances where budgets and plans are at issue it is quite often found that objectives somehow seem to appear as being important and apparently there is a general agreement that this is the way things have to happen. It then also seems to happen that those officials who are involved with the compilation of the financial budgets come along and with very firm attitudes state that “there are no funds for that particular project”, thereby creating exasperation for those who felt that the particular project is of vital value and importance. The criticism is then loudly expressed that putting the project before the availability of funds would be to “put the cart before the horse”. At the same time the person who has the responsibility to ensure that supply chain management processes need to be applied expresses a similar concern regarding the horse and the cart.

At this point the councillors appear with special requests for special attention to be given to the rearrangement of the expenditures and that the project needs to be advanced ahead of other projects by arguing that the priorities have to be reviewed.

Hefty arguments are heard regarding the lack of sufficient evaluation of the weights to be awarded to the different projects right at the beginning of the budget process and snide remarks about the horse and the cart are heard. Often nothing is embarked upon because more attention is given to processes and valuable time is lost instead of at least getting on with what needs to be done as budgeted.

At this time it was the relative newcomer who asked whether the same kind of missing-the-point is found to be made when the central bankers decide on monetary policy while politicians think that their priorities are more important than the financial health of the economy as measured in terms of the consumer price. The impact of the monetary policy is argued as the horse while the political priorities are the cart, and putting them in the wrong sequence gives credence to the saying. The horse must be supported in order to allow it to have the necessary strength to pull the cart.

It is thus no wonder that there are many critics that like to rub the salt into the wounds of those that argue that their views should get priority notwithstanding the glaring evidence that they wish to put the cart before the horse.