Consult this publication on line at

Aggregate Budget:
the sum total of all of the individual departmental budgets, along
with collective revenues, and a borrowing plan to cover any financial gap. This part of the
budget also shows the official calculation of the maximum permissible borrowing amount
under the debt brake rule (see Section 2.1).
Departmental budgets:
The bulk of the budget detail is set out in the departmental
budgets, which contain the expenditures, revenues, “commitment appropriations” (see
Section 1.1 above) and established posts for the federal ministries and other key offices/
areas – each of these areas or “departments” (there are 22 at present) has a two-digit budget
code as listed below.
01 Federal Presidency
02 
Bundestag
03 
Bundesrat
04 Federal Chancellery
05 -12, 14 -17, 23, 30 Federal ministries
19 Federal Constitutional Court

---

BUDGET REVIEW: GERMANY
OECD JOURNAL ON BUDGETING – VOLUME 2014/2 © OECD 2015
16
Under the federal budget code, the Federal Ministry of Finance is responsible for
organising the annual budget preparations. It frames the overall budgetary aggregates,
proposes allocations for each line ministry (on the basis of continuity with the indicative
allocations from the previous cycle), receives “bids” from each ministry, and has the right
to amend and adjust these bids (after consultation with the ministries concerned) to
ensure consistency with the overall budgetary constraint. 
On the basis of official-level discussions, which get under way in December of year 
n-2
(i.e. in the calendar year that is two years prior to the year 
n
to which the budget relates),
indicative allocations are brought by the Ministry before the government in February of each
year 
n-1.
The resulting “benchmark figures decision” (
Eckwertebeschluss
) in March sets the
parameters for more intensive discussions among ministers, leading up to the presentation
of the government’s proposed budget – the “draft budget” – to parliament in August.
An intensive process of parliamentary engagement then gets underway, involving
dedicated teams of rapporteurs from the influential Budget Committee of parliament, who
discuss the proposed allocations with the line ministries. The Budget Committee has
power to recommend variations in the proposed allocations, and these recommendations
are usually fully adopted by the parliament. A reconciliation and settlement process gets
underway before the final budget is voted through by parliament in November/December
(see Section 7). Box 3 below provides a summary overview of the annual timetable.
During the course of the budget year, line ministries are chiefly responsible for the
control and delivery of their budget commitments. While the Federal Ministry of Finance
maintains an oversight role, its power to intervene is limited. There are mechanisms open
to the Finance Ministry to “block” certain lines of spending before they can be drawn down,
and some other powers – e.g. control over 
virements
– can also enhance its leverage. There
are some mechanisms for flexibility in how funds are used; both in-year 
virement
and
conditional carry-over mechanisms across budget years.
Box 2.