A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, I worked for a government agency.
Their unwritten policy was to give all employees a Merit Performance Award (raise) each year, despite performance.
This increased the budget needed, and the more money you handle, the more money they must pay you.
The Chief Financial Officer understood that system well.
Also, at the END OF FISCAL YEAR, government agencies go on buying sprees, buying unneeded junk to spend their ‘allocation’ and go over just a bit , to help justify getting.... a bigger ‘allocation’ (budget).
This was to avoid the rule that if you had money left in the budget, it was taken out, and your ‘allocation’ might even be lowered to match.
Yep.....spend it or lose it. Rampant in the Fed (and, I may add, many large corporations as well).