Finance division urges secys to spend money prudently

The Ministry of Finance has set 15 conditions on expenditure and urged the secretaries concerned to use public funds prudently while implementing programmes under the government's single budget system.

From now on, no money can be spent in the expectation of supplementary approval without the prior consent of the Finance Division.

At the same time, everyone should be careful about spending public money in such a way that a person of common sense is just as careful about spending his own money.

This was stated in the directives issued by the Finance Division last week for the implementation of programmes under the single budget system.

The single budget austerity directives, signed by Finance Secretary Abdur Rouf Talukder, has given financial powers to the ministries, divisions, joint offices and subordinate office programme directors/coordinators and scheme managers concerned to facilitate the implementation of the single budget system.

According to the directives, the secretary / senior secretary of each ministry or division will henceforth act as if s/he is the chief accounts officer and ensure judicious spending of public funds.

From now on, the actual expenditure will have to be limited to the amount allocated against various codes in the budget.

The senior secretary/secretary-in-charge of the ministry/division shall act as the Chief Accounting Officer in case of receipt of the office under his charge and expenditure of funds from the budget sanctioned by the ministry or division, the directives state.

In this case, the senior secretary/ secretary has to pay special attention to seven conditions, notably, the money should be used for the purpose for which the money is allocated to the ministry/division, joint office or subordinate offices.

In the case of spending money, the usual rules and regulations should be followed. It should be noted that in no case extra money is spent or allocated. Everyone has to be as careful as a mother carrying her child while spending government money or as a person of common sense spending his own money.

The actual expenditure should be limited to the amount allocated against various codes in the budget. No money can be spent in the hope that supplementary grants will be approved without the prior consent of the Finance Division.

The accounts must be consistent with the information provided by the Chief Accounts Officer on the amount spent each month.

The Chief Accounts Officer of the ministries/divisions under whose control the accounts have been subdivided shall regularly make arrangements to keep the accounts of the respective departments in line with his accounts.