Financial Regulations 1990

An Accounting Officer is personally responsible for —

No officer may be relieved from a duty imposed on him or her by the Act or these Regulations by delegating the performance of that duty to a subordinate when the officer should have performed the duty himself or herself.

The responsibility of the Auditor‑General for the examination of public accounts and finances and of reporting any irregularity therein does not absolve an officer from the latter’s responsibility of complying or securing compliance with any instruction issued by the Treasury or an Accounting Officer of the department to which the officer is attached.

The Auditor‑General shall not be responsible for the accuracy of any account so as to relieve an Accounting Officer of any duty in respect of the account that may be imposed upon him or her by the Act or these Regulations.

In all cases the gross amounts of the public money received must be accounted for by the Accounting Officer.

No charges upon the revenue received are to be made without proper authority and all such charges are to appear as expenditure and be supported by proper vouchers.

An Accounting Officer must report promptly to the Treasury any failure on the part of a department of which he or she is in charge or an officer attached to a department of which he or she is in charge to collect and duly account for any sum due to the department or to be collected by the officer and must transmit a copy of the report to the Auditor‑General.

Where the Accounting Officer has reason to believe that any revenue is falling unduly into arrears, he or she must report the matter to the Treasury and transmit a copy of the report to the Auditor‑General.

Every disbursement of public money must be made under the authority of the Minister by the Accountant‑General or an Accounting Officer.

The disbursement must be made by the Accountant‑General or Accounting Officer either personally or by an officer acting on his or her expressed or implied instructions.

A payment out of a deposit account established under section 8(1) of the Act may be made by any person controlling that deposit account as may be specified by the Minister under section 8(3) of the Act.

A payment out of a fund created by any written law may be made by any person that may be authorised to do so by that law.

No payment is to be made out of the Consolidated Fund unless the payment is authorised by a General Warrant, Special Warrant, Establishment Warrant, Transfer Warrant or Loan Account Warrant signed by the Minister.

A General Warrant is required for any payment for services for which provision is made in any annual estimates.

A Special Warrant is required for any payment for services for which provision is made in any supplementary estimates.

An Establishment Warrant is required for any addition to or alteration of an Establishment List authorised by the Minister under section 17(3) of the Act.

A Transfer Warrant is required for —

A Loan Account Warrant is required for any issue from the Consolidated Loan Account of sums for payment into the Development Fund.

Regulation 12 applies, mutatis mutandis, to a payment out of any Government fund, except as otherwise provided by any written law creating that fund.

An advance under section 11(2) of the Act from the Contingencies Fund created under section 11(1) of the Act must be authorised by a Contingencies Fund Warrant issued under the authority of the Minister.

All vouchers must contain such particulars as are necessary to enable those vouchers to be checked.

When supplies are furnished or any work is carried out under an agreement or a contract, there must be attached to or shown on the voucher relating to the agreement or contract a certificate stating that the payments for those supplies or that work are made in accordance with the terms of the contract or agreement and, where supplies are furnished, that those supplies have been received or, where work is carried out, that the work has been properly done.

Where a payment for work is made on an account, no more is to be paid than the cost of the work certified to have been carried out.

If a deduction in respect of a penalty or damages is made from the amount payable under a contract, only the net sum is to be paid.

An officer who approves a voucher must certify that it is accurate in every detail.

The officer is responsible for ensuring that —

The date of receipt or payment governs the date of the record of the transaction in the accounts.

A payment of public money must not be made before it is due for the purpose of utilising an anticipated saving arising on a subhead of expenditure.

Any unexpended portion of any subhead of expenditure must not be drawn for the purpose of setting that portion in reserve to meet a payment which is not due or for the purpose of transferring that portion to a deposit or suspense account.

An expenditure duly chargeable to an account of a financial year must, as far as possible, be met within that financial year and must not be deferred for the purpose of avoiding an excess in any sum provided for expenditure in any annual estimates.

An outstanding item of revenue must not be carried to a revenue subhead as a charge against an advance or suspense account pending the collection of the revenue.

Any revenue collected in a financial year must not be placed in a deposit account or held in suspense with the object of transferring the amount collected to the revenue of the following financial year.

At the close of each financial year, any investment held on account of the Consolidated Fund must be shown at its book value on 31 March 1976, if the investment was acquired on or before that date and at cost, if the investment was acquired after that date.

Where an investment is held as part of a Government fund or deposit account so that the investment belongs to that fund or deposit account and not to the Consolidated Fund, paragraph (1) applies, mutatis mutandis, to that investment except that any profit or loss arising therefrom must accrue to or be met by that fund or deposit account (as the case may be) and not to the Consolidated Revenue Account.

Any necessary expenditure, revenue received, or public property or money held by a department of a secret nature, the purpose and particulars of which cannot be made public, must be supported in the appropriate accounts by —

The Accounting Officer must forward a copy of the certificate and the declaration mentioned in paragraph (1) to the Auditor‑General and the Treasury.

The Accounting Officer must make necessary arrangements to ensure that all public moneys are properly safeguarded.

An officer is personally responsible for any loss of public moneys arising from his or her negligence.

An officer must deposit all public moneys as soon as possible into a public or official bank account.

No private money is to be paid into any public or official bank account.

The Accountant‑General must keep, and maintain up‑to‑date, such books of account as will enable the statements required by section 18 of the Act to be prepared.

After the end of each financial year, the Accountant‑General must prepare and submit to the Minister the statements required by section 18 of the Act.

In this Part —

In this Part, any reference to any nationally significant infrastructure expenditure incurred by the Government in relation to an approved infrastructure project includes a reference to any nationally significant infrastructure expenditure that is payment by the Government —

In this Part, nationally significant infrastructure expenditure is taken to be incurred by the Government in relation to an approved infrastructure project in the financial year that the resulting nationally significant infrastructure is first expected to be available and in a condition necessary for it to be ready for use for its intended purpose or purposes, when the liability to pay the cost arising in respect of the approved infrastructure project is recognised, regardless that the cost may be due and actually unpaid.

Only an item of nationally significant infrastructure expenditure that —

In this regulation, “Estimates” means the annual estimates and the supplementary estimates.

An item of nationally significant infrastructure expenditure relating to an approved infrastructure project must be capitalised in the following financial year:

Without limiting paragraph (1), the cost in respect of an approved infrastructure project includes —

However, where the cost for any matter mentioned in paragraph (2) is incurred together with other costs without a specific value being allocated to it, then so much of the overall cost as is reasonably practicable to be directly attributable to the matter may be treated as the cost for that matter.

Despite paragraph (1), the cost incurred on any of the following must be disregarded for the purpose of this regulation:

An item of nationally significant infrastructure expenditure incurred by the Government may be capitalised using estimated amounts but only where this can be measured reliably.

An item of nationally significant infrastructure expenditure that is capitalised in a financial year in any circumstances described in paragraph (1) or regulation 33(1) —

To avoid doubt, paragraph (2) does not prevent any of the following adjustments so as to ensure a complete and accurate capitalisation in accordance with this Part:

The depreciation in respect of every infrastructure project that is or is connected to any nationally significant infrastructure must be accounted for in the relevant statement required to be prepared under section 18(1) of the Act.

Where a nationally significant infrastructure is impaired, and there is a decline in the value of the nationally significant infrastructure for reasons other than depreciation before the end of its useful life, the impairment loss must be accounted for in the relevant statement required to be prepared under section 18(1) of the Act.

The depreciation in respect of an asset that is a nationally significant infrastructure is —

The depreciation in respect of an asset that is a related facility of a nationally significant infrastructure is —

The depreciation of an asset mentioned in paragraph (1) or (2) must begin when it is available for use and is in the condition necessary for it to be ready for use for its intended purpose or purposes.

The depreciation of an asset mentioned in paragraph (1) or (2) does not end just because the asset becomes idle.

The depreciation in respect of an asset that is a related facility of a nationally significant infrastructure must be separate from that of the nationally significant infrastructure.

The useful life of any nationally significant infrastructure has to be worked out by estimating the period that the nationally significant infrastructure can be used by anyone for its intended purpose or purposes, being a purpose described in paragraph (b) of the definition of “nationally significant infrastructure” in section 2 of the Significant Infrastructure Government Loan Act 2021, that period starting no later than the time the nationally significant infrastructure is expected to be available and in a condition for use, for its intended purpose or purposes.

The useful life of any related facility for any nationally significant infrastructure has to be worked out separately from that of the nationally significant infrastructure.

In making that estimate under paragraph (1) or (2), the following assumptions must be made:

However, any estimate under paragraph (1) or (2) of the useful life of —

It is the duty of the Accounting Officer of an infrastructure project participant of an infrastructure project that is ongoing on, or starts on or after, 3 August 2021, to estimate the useful life of any nationally significant infrastructure resulting from that project, and every related facility of the nationally significant infrastructure.

An asset mentioned in regulation 36(1) or (2) is impaired when its carrying amount exceeds its recoverable amount.

An Accounting Officer must take steps —

If any impairment of an asset mentioned in regulation 36(1) or (2) has occurred in a financial year, then as soon as practicable after the end of that financial year, the Accountant‑General has to disclose in any statement required to be prepared in respect of that year for the purposes of section 18(2) of the Act the amount of impairment losses recognised during the financial year.