Annual Report 2010 - Ministry of Finance and Planning

3 | REFORM INITIATIVESThe Role of Chief - Accounting Officers of Line Ministries (February 2011)The Constitution stipulates that thereshall be for each Ministry a Secretarywho shall be appointed by thePresident and that the Secretary shallsubject to the direction and controlof the Minister exercise supervision ofthe departments of the governmentor other institutions in charge of hisMinister 9 .The Financial Regulations 1992 whichhave been approved by the Hon.Minister of Finance are binding onMinistries, Departments, StatutoryBodies and all State Employees. Theyapply to Government Corporationsunless they have duly adopted theirown comprehensive Financial Rulesand Procedures. His Excellency thePresident, acting under the powersvested on him by the Constitution hasassigned to the Minister of Finance,the subject of the GovernmentFinancial Regulations, Interpretations,Amendments, etc 10 . The objectives ofthese Regulations are to enable theGovernment to carry out its financialtransaction in an orderly manner andare not intended to be an obstructionto the execution of the GovernmentProgramme of work.As such; once a Secretary is appointedhe becomes the Chief AccountingOfficer of his Ministry, and is requiredto perform responsibilities entrustedinter alia in terms of the FinancialRegulations of the Government.In February 2011 attention of all thosewho were appointed as Secretaries toline ministries were drawn to the rolethey are expected to play includingthe following aspects. They were alsorequested to adhere with their dutiesand responsibilities;• In terms of FR 124(1) the Ministerof Finance who is in charge interalia with the general oversightof all financial operations of theGovernment and the Treasury,lays down the broad frameworkwithin which government financialtransactions should be undertaken.• In terms of FR 124(2) the Ministerof Finance appoints Secretariesto Ministries who are the chiefaccounting officers, and delegatesto them the responsibility tosupervise related financialtransactions subject to thedirections of the Treasury.• Accordingly, as the ChiefAccounting Officer, a Secretaryis responsible to the Minister ofFinance as well as to his ownMinister, for the overall supervisionof the financial administrationof the relavent unit, whether itis a department or any otherinstitution gazetted underthe Ministry, including PublicCorporations, Government OwnedCompanies and their subsidiariesas well as Programmes andProjects. A Chief AccountingOfficer is required to adhere interalia with the undernoted FinancialRegulations;- FR 127 - General Responsibilitiesof Chief Accounting Officers- FR 128 - General Responsibilitiesof Accounting Officers- FR 150 - Appropriation Accounts- FR 151 - Revenue Accounts- FR 152 - Committee on PublicAccounts- FR 625 - Recording of ForeignAid Expenditure in the TreasuryBooks.• Supervision of the financialtransactions are entrusted to theSecretary as the Chief AccountingOfficer so as to ensure that relatedinstitution will achieve its respectivemission and objectives, whileadhering with the instructionsissued by the General Treasury,which exercises the overallsupervision and control overGovernment Finance, as envisagedin FR 126, subject to the ultimatecontrol by the Parliament in termsof Article 148 of the Constitution.• In this backdrop, the attentionof Secretaries were drawn to thefollowing;a. As the Chief Accounting Officer,every Secretary is required toensure the efficient and effectiveutilization of funds and all otherresources received throughvoted provisions and otherwise,and account for all such funds interms of applicable Regulationsand Guidelines.b. Secretaries should ensurecompliance with the Minutes ofSecretaries, the EstablishmentCode, and Circulars/ Instructionsof the Government issued fromtime to time, including thoseissued by the Treasury and theMinistry of Public Administration.c. It should be noted that Circulars/Instructions issued in relation tothe re-structuring Public Servicesalaries, re- employment ofretired public servants, availingofficial transport are compliedwith.d. In the event of anyinconsistency/conflict betweenthe provisions in the FinancialRegulations or Administrative9 Article 52 of the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka10 Article 44, Paragraph (1) (a) of the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka194