Section 25: Supplementary budgets

(1) Where in respect of any financial year, it is found that the amount appropriated by an Appropriation Act is insufficient, or that a need has arisen for expenditure for a purpose for which no amount has been appropriated by the Appropriation Act, a supplementary estimate, showing the amount required, shall be laid before Parliament, by the Minister through a Supplementary Appropriation Bill. (2) For the purposes of Article 156 (2) (b) of the Constitution, the total sum of money that may be expended by Government for any purpose, in excess of the amount appropriated for a purpose for which no money was appropriated by the Appropriation Act, shall not exceed the total of the money appropriated to the Contingencies Fund. (3) The Minister may, upon request by an Accounting Officer, approve a supplementary budget of up to 10 per cent of the Contingencies Fund. (4) The supplementary budget under subsection (3) shall be financed from the Contingencies Fund in accordance with section 26 (8). (5) The appropriated budget of a vote under subsection (3) shall not include any supplementary budget of the vote. (6) Parliament may approve a supplementary appropriation or the Minister may approve a supplementary budget, as the case may be, where the supplementary expenditure is unabsorbable, unavoidable and unforeseeable. (7) For the purposes of this section- (a) "unabsorbable" means an expenditure that cannot be funded through virement; (b) "unavoidable" means an expenditure that cannot be postponed to the next financial year; and (c) "unforeseeable" does not include an expenditure that was foreseeable by the vote at the time of preparation of the budget of the vote or an expenditure that should have been included in the budget of the vote. (8) Where the Minister considers that the supplementary expenditure sought under a Supplementary Appropriation Bill is likely to breach the principles in section 4 or the objectives of the Charter for Fiscal Responsibility, the Minister shall apply section 7. (9) Any expenditure which is in excess of the appropriated budget of a vote and which is not in accordance with this section shall be treated as loss of public funds as provided for under section 80 (1).