Chapter managing and monitoring budget implementation 1 A. Budgetary accounting

2.

In-year budget revision

It is difficult to make accurate forecasts for the implementation of certain

programs or for developments in economic parameters such as inflation, interest rate or

exchange rates. Some immediate needs that were not foreseen during budget execution

may appear during budget execution. To limit the effects of these problems, rules for

transfers must be flexible; appropriations for debt service cannot be a spending limit and

should be revised according to developments in interest rates or the exchange rate.

Contingency reserves may be included in the budget. However, their amount must

account for only 1-3 percent of the total budget; otherwise, budget execution will involve

bargaining the uses of reserves and the budget will become an allocation of reserves.

---

10

Therefore, for changes that alter the composition of the budget or when an

overall increase in expenditures is unavoidable, the budget may have to be revised.

Mechanisms for revisions depend on the countries, and should be clearly stated in the

budget organic law. Some broad principles are desirable. Since the budget has been

passed by the legislature, revisions should be made by law. Generally, changes in

appropriation above a certain percentage of the initial appropriation or changes that

affect the total amount of expenditures must be submitted for to the legislature for

approval. To allow the government to address problems with dispatch, procedures

authorizing exceptional expenditures before the Parliament approves them can be

considered. However, the authority should be regulated and limited, and the executive

must be required to present a revised budget to the Parliament at short notice.

Supplementary estimates should be approved only at a fixed time and the

number of in-year revisions should be strictly limited (to preferably only one in-year

budget revision). Some countries present supplementary estimates to Parliament on a

case-to-case basis, each time the Cabinet approves a request from a line ministry be, as

a result, an excessive number of supplementary estimates are prepared every year

(e.g., up to 40 in Sri Lanka). Such procedures should be avoided. Budget execution is

difficult to control when budget is continually being revised. Moreover, supplementary

estimates granted to one sector may, all too soon, seem better allocated to a higher-

priority sector. Preferably, only one budget revision should be made during the fiscal

year and requests from line ministries should be reviewed together, not singly.