ISLAMABAD: The Finance Division has directed all the attached departments of the Division to deposit their annual surpluses, after caring out their expenditure as authorized by federal government immediately to the federal consolidated fund.
An office memorandum of the Finance Division said that currently, Divisions have sub-ordinate offices, autonomous, semi-autonomous as well as corporate bodies and executive departments as Rule 4 states that each Division shall have attach department and other than the business done in the federal secretariat or the attached departments, shall be conducted through such agencies and offices as the prime minister may determine from time to time.
The Finance Division in the Office Memorandum (OM) issued instructions in order to comply with the legal provisions as well as Rules of Business 1973 which included that; (i) no charge on the federal budget or receipt be created without consultation of Finance Division; (Explanation; presence of a representative of Finance Division on the Board of an office as above referred, does not constitute consultation with Finance Division. Such consultation is required to be undertaken as per prescribed procedure; (ii) all offices are required to deposit, after caring out their expenditure as authorized by federal government/Finance Division, their annual surpluses in the federal consolidated fund promptly in accordance with the provision of their own laws as well the Public Finance Management Act 2019; (iii) pays, allowances and their revision of all government employees, including those employed in autonomous/semi-autonomous/corporate bodies requires prior approval of Finance Division; (iv) Auditor General of Pakistan should ensure that during audits of all offices of the federation, Finance Division’s specific approvals, as provided for in (I) above, are available and are verified in respect of all expenditures and charges including pays and allowances; (v) AGPR and budget/expenditure wings of Finance Division should undertake a review of the existing expenditures of above stated offices including pay and allowances and any such expenditures that lack Finance Division’s specific approval. Any payments not in accordance with these instructions be discontinued and this exercise must be completed within 30 days from the issue of these instructions.
In cases requiring clarity, the expenditure is to be stopped immediately and matter referred to Finance Division promptly; (vi) in cases where Finance Division has already delegated powers under Rules of Business, 1973, AGPR to should ensure that such power is being exercised within he prescribed parameters of the delegation; (vii) budget and expenditure wings should ensure production of evidence of approval/consultation of Finance Division of all expenditures of offices referred to in para 1 during the upcoming budget exercise before authorizing budgetary allocations; (viii) these instructions are to be circulated among all offices referred to para 1 for compliance.
Rule 12 of Rules of Business, 1973 states that “no Division shall, without previous consultation with the Finance Division, authorize the issue of any orders, other than orders in pursuance of any general or special delegation made by the Finance Division, which will affect directly or indirectly the finances of the Federation”.
Instances have come to the notice of Finance Division where the offices referred above, especially autonomous/semi-auto-nomous/corporate bodies, have contended that they enjoy financial autonomy and that their own boards are competent to take their financial decisions.
Such decisions have frequently included sanctioning of new allowances or enhancing rates of existing allowances.
It is clarified that offices and organizations are created by the federal government to facilitate the essential functions performed by the federal government and in some cases, operational independence is granted to such offices, mostly autonomous/semi auto-nomous bodies, to ensure performance of government business, in an impartial and timely manner.
However, such offices (a) either draw financial support directly from the federal government through budgetary processes or (b) have been authorised, mostly through -legislation, by the federal government to generate revenues.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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