FINANCIAL POWERS DELEGATIONS TO SUBORDINATE
AUTHORITIES
SANCTIONS TO EXPENDITURE: (BASIC PRINCIPLES)
11.1 No subordinate authority is
empowered to sanction without the previous consent of the Ministry of Finance
any expenditure, which involves the introduction of a new principle or practice
likely to lead to increase of expenses. Moreover, exercising of financial
powers by a subordinate authority is subject to the observance of any general
or special direction, which the authority delegating or redelegating power may
issue at any time.
11.2 A sanction to expenditure
would be operative only when the funds have been appropriated to meet the
expenditure. In case of sanction to a recurring expenditure covering a
specified term of years it would operate when funds are appropriated to meet
the expenditure of the first year and would remain in operation for each year
of the specified term subject to appropriation in such years.
11.3 The two main principles to be
observed in any system of financial control are economy and regularity, and the
success of any system must depend upon the vigour with which they are observed
in day to day administration, Economy means gelting the full value for money,
and by regularity is meant the spending of money for the purposes and in the
manner prescribed by lav,. The two are not necessarily the same thing, for it
is conceivable to spend money without constitutional irregularity and yet
wastefully.
11.4 While the provisions of the
General Financial Rules Vol. 1 contain general and specific instructions on the
subject, the principles on which emphasis is essentially laid may be
recapitulated as follows:
(a) that
expenditure is incurred with due regard to high standards of financial
propriety;
(b) that funds
allotted to a Ministry/Division, its Attached, or Subordinate Offices are spent
for the purpose for which they are allocated;
(c) that funds
are spent in accordance with relevant rules and regulations;
(d) that the
actual expenditure does not exceed the budget allocation;
(e) that the
expenditure is not prima facie more than (he occasion demands and that every
Government servant exercises the same vigilance in respect of expenditure
incurred from public funds as a person of ordinary prudence would exercise in
respect of expenditure of his own money;
(f) that no
authority exercises its powers of sanctioning expenditure to pass an order
which will be directly or indirectly to its own advantage;
(g) that
public moneys are not utilised for the benefit of a particular person or
section of the community unless:
