Jonetta Rose Barras: Why have a financial chief?

The list of District government agencies overspending their allocated budget continues to grow. I reported earlier this month, the Department of Corrections has a potential shortfall of $10 million for this year. The Department of Parks and Recreation has an $8 million deficit. There are estimates that Child and Family Services has a budget problem of between $10 million and $25 million.

Last week, The Examiner‘s Michael Neibauer reported the fire department has a hole of more than $11 million in its 2010 budget, partly because certain benefits weren’t included in salary calculations. Someone blamed software for the problem.