ISLAMABAD - The government has decided that no token supplementary grant would be granted, as the federal cabinet, the National Assembly especially, the Public Accounts Committee have directed to discourage supplementary grant unless extremely critical.
The ministry of finance has issued notification regarding supplementary grants. The government has decided that no token supplementary granted would be approved. “Token grants shall be required, in case an expenditure on any new service or new item during financial year is met through re-appropriation of funds,” the ministry of finance explained. The Principal Accounting Officer (PAO) shall resort to finance an unforeseen emergency or insufficient appropriation by examining the approved allocated budget within grant under detailed heads and meet the requirement through re appropriation under delegated heads. The PAO would refer the case to Expenditure Wing, Finance Division for re appropriation under restricted heads.
The ministry of finance has stated that if additional funds are required, the Division/Department concerned shall provide matching funds through surrender order for technical supplementary grant. “All applications submitted by the FAQs for regular supplementary grants (SG) or technical supplementary grants (TSG) shall be accompanied with a full explanation of the reason on proforma,” it added.
In case the supplementary grant (SG/TSG) is required for expenditure pertaining to Public Sector Development Program (PSDP), the recommendations of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Division shall be required before submission of the case to Expenditure Wing, Finance Division. All proposals for SG/TSG shall be routed through Expenditure Wing of Finance Division. The Expenditure Wing shall review the position of the grant as a whole with reference to verified actual as on that date and that of the previous year. After due diligence and having been satisfied the Expenditure Wing may forward the case to Budget Wing, Finance Division with full justification and recommendations.
Budget Wing, Finance Division shall provide endorsement, duly signed by the Finance Secretary (as per existing practice) to the concerned Division/Department for submission of case to the ECC of the Cabinet for approval. After approval the Divisions/Departments concerned shall send the authenticated schedule for entry in SAP system to Budget Wing, Finance Division.
The Division/Department concerned shall provide complete details of the approved SG/TSG cases and coordinate with the Budget Wing, Finance Division for soliciting approval of the National Assembly in terms of Article 84(a) of the Constitution.
Article 84(a) of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan and Section 10 of the Public Finance Management Act 2019 provide that if in respect of any financial year, it is found that the amount authorised to be expended for a particular service is insufficient, or that a need has arisen for expenditure upon some new service not included in the Annual Budget Statement for that year, the Federal Government shall have power to authorise expenditure from the Federal Consolidated fund, whether the expenditure is charged by the Constitution upon that fund or not, and shall cause to be laid before the National Assembly, Supplementary Budget Statement. The General Financial Rules (GFR) also provides the procedure strategy to release development budget. Meanwhile, the ministry of finance has also notified strategy to release development budget. Funds for Development Budget would be released by Finance Division at the level of 20 percent for the first quarter, 30 percent each for 2nd and 3rd Quarter and 20 percent for the 4th quarter of the fiscal year.
Ministry of Planning, Development and Special initiatives shall devise project wise / Division-wise strategy for release of funds for Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) within the appropriations approved by the National Assembly and Included ‘In the Schedule of Authorisation Expenditure in terms of Article 83 of the Constitution.
“All payments shall be made through the pre-audit system of the Accountant General Pakistan Revenues (AGPR) / Military Accountant General (MAG) / Accounting Officers l Sub-Offices, or through Assignment Account procedure issued by the Finance Division. No direct payment through the State Bank of Pakistan shall be made, except with the prior approval of the Finance Secretary,” the ministry stated in notification. No authority shall incur or commit any expenditure from the “Federal Consolidated Fund” until the same has been sanctioned by the National Assembly and the expenditure has been provided for the financial year through (a) schedule of authorised of expenditure in terms of Article 83 of the Constitution. Or supplementary grant or technical supplementary grant as per Article 84 of the Constitution has been approved by the Federal Government, or re-appropriation as per Sections 2(U) and 1 l of the Public Finance Management Act. 2019. There shall be no requirement of ways and means clearance from Budget Wing and endorsement of sanction letters by Expenditure Wing, Finance Division for the fund releases for PSDP approved projects.
