sounds like the company I was under contract for doing Microsoft Access programming. They eliminated their contractor budget. My present employer is doing that leaving our team working with the barest of minimum staff.
What's the problem? This is the standard Military Model, and it's been working perfectly for years. The only improvement has been the Congressional Model, where we pay 535 people to do nothing of any consequence.
If you have to blow the budget at the end of the FY why not blow it on people who do the same job? Else you'd have to send people to useless courses they don't need. We used to send execs to Hawaii for two week courses. Attendance only required to sign in at the beginning and pick up a useless piece of paper that was already signed before the course began at the end.