ISLAMABAD: Taking a strong note of the claim of fiscal autonomy by the corporate and autonomous bodies and executive departments of the federal government, in the wake of slippage in the budget, the Ministry of Finance has issued a financial statement ahead of the quarterly review with the International Monetary Fund.
The Ministry has restrained all federal ministries, divisions and their attached and subsidiary offices, corporations, corporate bodies and executive departments from creating any kind of charge or liability.
New directives have been issued to all ministries, divisions, attached departments, dozens of autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies, corporate bodies and executive departments for strict compliance following the assertion of financial autonomy by these bodies.
They maintained that they "enjoy financial autonomy and their boards (of directors) are competent to take their own financial decisions". The total number of such institutions and bodies under the federal domain is said to be around 300.
No charge will be levied on the federal budget or receipts without consulting the Finance Division, the new orders clarify that "the presence of a representative of the Finance Division on the board of an office does not constitute consultation with the Finance Division". . It added that such consultation needs to be done as per the prescribed procedure.
In addition, all offices are required to "immediately deposit their annual surpluses in the Federal Consolidated Fund (FCF) after meeting their expenditure as authorized by the Federal Government through the Ministry of Finance, as well as the provision of public finance under their laws." required to be collected under the Management Act, 2019”.
Further, prior approval of the Ministry of Finance shall be required for revision of salaries, allowances and revisions of all government employees including employees employed in autonomous, semi-autonomous and corporate bodies.
The AGP has been directed to ensure that during the audit of all offices of the Federation, specific approvals of the MoF were available and verification of all expenditure and charges, including salary and allowances, was carried out. Similarly, the Budget and Expenditure Wings of AGPR and MoF have also been mandated to review the current expenditure of these institutions, including salary and allowances, and track any expenditure that does not have the specific approval of the MoF.
"Any payment not following these instructions should be stopped," the MoF said with instructions to complete the exercise within 30 days. In cases requiring clarification, the expenditure should be stopped immediately and the matter referred to the MOF immediately.
Even in cases of entities where the MoF has already delegated powers under the Rules of Business 1973, the AGPR needs to ensure that such powers are within the prescribed parameters of delegation. are being used.
The Budget and Expenditure Wings have been directed to ensure the submission of evidence of financial fund approval for all expenditure of the said offices and institutions before budget allocation.
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