Additional grants plugged, except for ‘severe disasters’
The caretaker government has tightened the fiscal policy, banning supplementary grants except in case of severe natural calamities and setting strict conditions for diverting funds to other objectives until an elected government takes charge. “No Supplementary Grants for any additional unbudgeted spending over the parliamentary approved level in FY24 [current fiscal year] will be approved in order to remain within the approved budgetary allocation, at least until the formation of a new government after the elections (except if needed to respond to a severe natural disaster),” the Ministry of Finance told all ministries, divisions and associated departments and entities in a memorandum. It said cases for supplementary grants, even in severe natural disasters, would be considered where no funds could be made available through reappropriation. In that case, the technical supplementary grants would be taken up once the principal accounting officer leading the entity concerned provides a certificate that all avenues had been exhausted and this would need to be verified by the relevant accounting organisation.