Public Sector Governance and Accountability Series: Budgeting and ...

Budget Execution 299
BOX 9.4 Transfers between Budget Items: Virements
South Africa
According to South Africa’s Public Finance Management Act of 1999 (PFMA)
and Treasury Regulations of March 2005 (National Treasury of South Africa
2005), an accounting officer for a department may transfer a saving in the
amount appropriated under a main division within a vote (that is, a program)
toward another main division within the same vote, but only under certain
conditions, notably the following:
The amount transferred should not exceed 8 percent of the amount
appropriated under the main division within the vote (PFMA, article 43).
Virements are not authorized for (a) amounts appropriated for a purpose
explicitly specified under a main division within a vote, (b) changes to the beneficiary
institution of transfers to institutions, and (c) transfers of amounts
appropriated for capital expenditure to current expenditure (PFMA, article 43).
The accounting officer must within seven days submit a report containing the
prescribed particulars concerning the transfer to the executive authority
responsible for the department and to the relevant treasury (PFMA, article 43).
Compensation of employees and transfers and subsidies to other institutions
may not be increased without the Treasury’s approval (Treasury
Regulations, article 63).
Tunisia
According to the Tunisian Organic Budget Law of 2004, virements are authorized
under the following conditions:
They are authorized by governmental decree:
—Within each chapter (that is, line-ministry or major institution budget),
between the recurrent expenditures “part” and the capital expenditures
“part,” within a limit of 2 percent of each part. However, virements that
would increase personnel expenditures are forbidden.
—Within each part, between articles. An article corresponds either to a
broad economic category or to a particular function. More than 100 articles
exist.
They are submitted for ministry approval if the virements are between
paragraphs within the same article. For current expenditures, a paragraph
corresponds to a detailed economic category (for example, buying radio
and television programs).
They are submitted for the approval of line-ministry management if the
virements are between subparagraphs within the same paragraph (for
example, buying radio programs is a subparagraph of the paragraph on
buying radio and television programs).
Source: Author’s compilation.