Until an elected government is in place, funds cannot be diverted to other purposes.

For FY24 [current fiscal year] to remain within the approved budgetary allocation, no Supplementary Grants will be approved if any additional unbudgeted expenditures exceed the parliamentary approved level. Until the formation of a new government after the elections (except in the event of a severe natural disaster), the Ministry of Finance informed all ministries, divisions and associated departments and entities. If supplementary grants cannot be made available through reappropriation, even in severe natural disasters, they will be considered. Technical supplementary grants would be approved after the principal accounting officer leading the entity concerned certifies that all avenues have been exhausted, which must be verified by the relevant accounting organization.

The expenditure wing of the finance ministry would also consider such supplementary grants if the principal accounting officer provided valid justification and cogent reasons for demanding the grant. According to the memorandum, only principal accounting officers could submit requests for technical supplementary grants, along with identification of resources under other demands and certificates of equivalent surrenders from the heads of the department from which funds were to be surrendered.

The expenditure wing will examine cases in detail and submit recommendations for consideration by the budget wing, which will process the cases based on system applications and products in a data processing report along with the financial space available for approval of funds for diversion.

Such requests would be submitted to the cabinet and its Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) for approval.

Upon approval of funds for technical supplementary grants by the federal cabinet, the principal accounting officer will submit a grant schedule duly endorsed by the expenditure wing, copies of the approved summary and decision of the ECC, cabinet approval and surrender order to the director of budget computerisation for entry into SAP and subsequent release by the finance ministry according to availability of funds and release strategy.

The principal accounting officers of all entities and ministries have been instructed to follow a tight mechanism for the reappropriation of funds if the amount authorised for a particular service for the current financial year is insufficient or if a new service is needed that is not included in the approved budget document.

As part of each grant demand, additional funding has been provided to the principal accounting officers to meet the funding requirements of this year’s ad hoc relief allowance announced in the budget for the current fiscal year.