State institutions directed to make compulsory savings in 2013 budget

State institutions are to be directed to provide for compulsory savings of 12 per cent in the 2013 budget spending aimed at effectively managing their allocations, Finance Ministry sources said.

All these savings will be credited to a special fund maintained in the Treasury.

This proposal will come in the 2013 budget estimates that will be presented in parliament along with the Appropriation Bill in November.

The saving would be made up of three per cent from recurrent expenditure and nine per cent from capital expenditure.

Secretaries of Ministries, Heads of Departments and Chief Accountants should ensure that three per cent of recurrent expenditure is saved from provision for salaries and wages-related overtime and expenditure on other goods and services, a senior ministry official told the Business Times.

Additional provisions or approval for transfers under Financial Regulations will not be granted during the year for expenditure heads identified for such savings. Supplementary allocations will not be considered as adequate provisions have to be maintained to meet any unexpected and urgent situations, he revealed.

Savings should also be made from provisions made for capital expenditure including the money allocated for rehabilitation and improvement of capital assets, development projects implemented under foreign financing, and also from the allocations made for the capital expenditure of Provincial Councils.

He said expected targets in savings could be achieved by identifying capital programmes which are not required to be implemented on a priority basis and also by management of the capital expenditure prudently and efficiently.

The Government has spent millions of rupees to purchase vehicles for government institutions during the first two months of this year, according to details of supplementary estimates.

The money has been allocated from the Budgetary Support Services Contingency Liabilities Project under the Department of National Budget.

The highest allocation of Rs 200 million has been made to the Ministry of Justice to purchase 23 motor vehicles for Judges of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal while another Rs 23 million has been allocated to purchase vehicles for the use of the Secretariat for Special Functions (Senior Ministers).

Another Rs. 11.8 million had been allocated to purchase vehicles for Sri Lanka missions in New York, the Netherlands and Singapore, the official said.

The practice of seeking money through supplementary estimates will be curtailed gradually and it is the prime responsibility of the Chief Accounting Officers and Accounting Officers to plan the annual expenditure of their institutions within the budgetary provisions approved by Parliament, he added.