The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) has instructed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to surrender any unutilized funds in a timely manner, enabling the Finance Division to allocate these funds in the following fiscal year’s budget.
This directive aims to reduce the need for Technical Supplementary Grants (TSG) for unspent funds.
BR reported that in a briefing to the ECC on November 1, NAB outlined that it receives funds through a specified formula for government and bureau shares on recoveries made, as per the Finance Division’s guidance issued on July 6, 2000.
These funds are allocated through a TSG under the Recovery and Reward Rules of 2002 and any unspent amount at the end of the fiscal year is traditionally reallocated by July 15.
For fiscal year 2023-24, NAB was allocated Rs.958.701 million, of which Rs.376.096 million remained unutilized by the close of the financial year. In line with established procedures, NAB requested the Finance Division for the reallocation of this unspent amount to meet its budgetary requirements. The Finance Division, in turn, advised NAB to submit a summary for ECC approval.
The Law Ministry subsequently sought ECC approval for a TSG of Rs.376.096 million under Article 84 of the Constitution to cover NAB’s expenditures as per the Recovery and Reward Rules 2002. However, the ECC noted that had NAB surrendered these lapsable funds earlier, the Finance Division could have included them in the new budget cycle, reducing the need for TSG requests.
Following the discussion, the ECC, chaired by the Finance Minister, approved the TSG request and instructed NAB to ensure timely surrender of unutilized funds in future to streamline the budgeting process and minimize TSG submissions.
