Treasury Secretary S.R. Attygalle has advised all Heads of public institutions to pay special attention to manage expenditure within the budgetary provisions next year due to fiscal constraints owing to COVID-19.
The Circular was sent to all Ministry Secretaries, State Ministry Secretaries, Provincial Council Chief Secretaries, Department Heads, District Secretaries and Chairmen of Statutory Boards and Corporations.
“Given the uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the amount of provisions to be allocated annually for expenditures related to the natural disasters, it will be extremely difficult to provide allocations in addition to the budgetary provisions. Therefore, expenditure to be incurred in 2021 should be managed in a well-prioritised manner. “If any request for additional allocations is made only for an essential matter, those requests should always be forwarded to the General Treasury together with the recommendation of the Chief Accounting Officers,” the Circular noted.
“Prior to entering into new obligations in 2021, payments should be settled by allocating necessary provision if bills to be settled in 2020 are in hand. It is always required to ensure availability of budgetary provisions before making any commitment. “Relevant officials are personally responsible for the commitments made while budgetary provisions are not available as the Treasury is not responsible for such liabilities,” the Circular added.
