Ministry of Finance

“ In regard to devising means to fill the deficit of duties and likin, the Ministry of Finance is desired carefully to consider the question. It is, undoubtedly, an important point to be dealt with, but it may be disposed of by weighing advantages and drawbacks and considering all possible resources. Viceroys and Governors who may have valuable suggestions on the question are ordered to memorialise the Throne for their adoption, so that those carrying out the suppression need not be hampered by financial considerations. ”

“ Article 2 The Agency is in charge of the following matters: 1.Planning and management of national treasury system, Central government revenue budgeting formation and national treasury financial dispatching. 2.Control of national treasury’s centralized payment business and the appropriation payment operation of national treasury fund. 3.Planning and management of public debt system, central debt borrowing and principal and interest repayment. ”

“ The Committee's terms of reference were as follows:—
"To examine and report upon:
(1) the present structure of Public Finance in Indian States and Unions of States;
(2) the desirability and feasibility of integrating Federal Finance in Indian States and Unions of States with that of the rest of India, to the end that a uniform system of Federal Finance may be established throughout the Dominion of India ”

“ The Fund shall be transparently administered and professionally managed subject to an oversight by Southern Sudan Assembly and a committee appointed by the Government of Southern Sudan but having on it a representative of the National Ministry of Finance and of the National Audit Chamber.
CHAPTER VI : BANKING The Dual Banking System 201 (1) The Central Bank of Sudan shall be responsible for the formulation and conduct of monetary policy. All banking institutions shall be subject to rules and regulations set by the Central Bank of Sudan. ”

“ Finance departments, where they existed, were weak and lacked traditions of effective control over public expenditure. An integrated system of financial control coupled with efficient audit is one of the essential adjuncts of democratic government. ”

“ From the standpoint of the country as a whole the advantages which will be derived from an integrated system of federal finance cannot be over-emphasised. The economic and fiscal contradictions and dangers inherent in the present situation will disappear. ”

“ Indian States Finances Enquiry Committee
186. The problems which thus arose for solution in the field of federal finance in relation to States and Unions were both difficult and complicated; and the Government of India felt that it would be desirable to examine them systematically, in detail. ”

“ The body having national legislative authority has the right to reallocate proposed
spending and to reduce the total amounts in the federal budget. It also has the right to
propose an increase in the overall amount of expenditures to the Council of Ministers
if necessary, and provide notice of this proposal to the Minister of Finance. ”

“ At the head of the financial organization of France, and exercising a general jurisdiction, is the minister of finance, who co-ordinates in one general budget the separate budgets prepared by his colleagues and assigns to each ministerial department the sums necessary for its expenses. ”

“ Chapter Ten The Government has certain responsibilities to control and account for government expenditure, which are primarily exercised by Treasury ministers, although other ministers and accounting officers also have important responsibilities. The Treasury is required to approve finance and public expenditure by other government departments. The Government has established procedures for ensuring efficient and transparent departmental governance and ways to account for government expenditure. ”

“ All levels of government shall comply with generally accepted accounting procedures, standards and fiscal accountability to ensure that public funds are allocated and expended according to the budget of such level of government. ”

“ The Minister of Planning and Finance shall administer the affairs on the establishment of mid and long term strategies for national development, establishment, overall control and coordination of economic and financial policies, management of compilation, execution and outcome of budget and fund, money, foreign exchange, National Treasury, governmental accounting, internal tax system, customs, international finance, management of public agencies, economic cooperation, state property, private investment and national debt. ”

“ The state budget is annually drawn up by the Cabinet and subject to approval by the Supreme People's Assembly.
ARTICLE 97. The state revenue and expenditure are consolidated in a uniform state budget.
ARTICLE 98. No organ of state power is allowed to make any outlay not stipulated in the state budget. All the organs of state power must observe the financial discipline and consolidate the financial system.
ARTICLE 99. To practice economy on, and make rational utilization of the state finance is the fundamental principle of financial activities. ”

“ Financial control (1) An Act of Parliament shall provide for the establishment, functions and responsibilities of the national Treasury. (2) Parliament shall enact legislation to ensure both expenditure control and transparency in all governments and establish mechanisms to ensure their implementation. (3) Legislation under clause (2) may authorise the Cabinet Secretary responsible for finance to stop the transfer of funds to a State organ or any other public entity— (a) only for a serious material breach or persistent material breaches of the measures established under that legislation ”

“ The Treasury
"The Minister for Finance, being vested with the control of the finances of the Government, will have charge of all matters relating to accounts, revenue, and expenditure, taxes, national debts, the currency, banks, and the like, and will have supervision over the finances of each local administration" (Ord. 54, § i) .
Under this Minister there is a Taxation Bureau with three sections — Land Tax, Excise, and Customs.^^^^ The ordinances connected with the remodelled system of taxation and the salaries and expenses of officials are very numerous and minute. ”

“ The Department of Finance and Justice shall embrace within its executive control the Bureau of the Insular Treasury, the Bureau of the Insular Auditor, the Bureau of Customs and Immigration, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the Insular Cold Storage and Ice Plant, a Bureau of Banks, Banking, Coinage and Currency, and the Bureau of Justice. ”

“ Since February of this year (1920) the secretaries of the various departments, in order to conform to the letter of Article 116 of the Constitution, and to assure continuity of public service in the matter of receipts and expenditures, set to work at the preparation of the budgets for their departments for 1920-21.
By a dispatch dated March 22, 1920, the Department of Finance sent the draft budgets to Mr. A. J. Maumus, Acting Financial Adviser, for preliminary study by that official. ”

“ Under existing legislation it is in the power of the Treasury Department to maintain that essential condition of national finance as well as of commercial prosperity—the parity in use of the coined dollars and their paper representatives. The assurance that these powers would be freely and unhesitatingly used has done much to produce and sustain the present favorable business conditions. ”

“ The Council of Ministers
may, within the agreed aggregate limit, adjust appropriations in accordance with their
collective priorities. Any increase in the aggregate spending limit must be based on a
proposal submitted by the Minister of Finance and approved by the Council of Ministers. ”

“ The annual billings shall also include a statement of the fair portion of the cost of the administration of the respective funds, which shall be paid by the Administrator into the Treasury as miscellaneous receipts. Sec. 207. The Administration is empowered— (a) to make loans to enable small-business concerns to finance plant construction, conversion, or expansion, including the acquisition of land; or to finance the acquisition of equipment, facilities, machinery, supplies, or materials ”

“ The Exchequer, i.e., the department concerned principally with the collection of the taxes, is in fact, though not in name, a branch of the Treasury Board. Within the Treasury, and immediately under the direction of the Chancellor, is drawn up the annual budget, embodying a statement of the contemplated expenditures of the year and a programme of taxation calculated to produce the requisite revenue. The Treasury exercises general control over all other departments of the public service, e.g., the Post-office and the Board of Customs, in which public money is collected or expended. ”

“ VI. The cost of exchange, insurance, and conveyance of specie abroad, as well as the commission for the payment of the coupons will be borne by the Government. The Directors of the Treasury will come to a previous arrangement with the Ministers of Finance with regard to all these operations, but the Minister will decide whether the despatch of these sums is to be effected in specie or by letters of exchange.
Art. VII. The Treasury will not be allowed to employ any funds, disposable or not, in operations of credit, commerce, industry, &c.
Govenment not to diminish yield of hypothecated taxes. ”

“ A Fiscal and Financial Allocation and Monitoring Commission shall be established, to ensure transparency and fairness both in regard to the allocation of nationally collected funds to the Government of Southern Sudan and the states. ”

“ It shall be the duty of the Federal Government to consult the National Finance Council in respect of- (a) the making of grants by the Federation to the States; (b) the assignment to the States of the whole of any portion of the proceeds of any federal tax of fee; (c) the annual loan requirements of the Federation and the States and the exercise by the Federation and the States of their borrowing powers; (d) the making of loans to any of the States; (e) the making of development plans in accordance with Article 92 ”

“ The first problem on this side of expenditure is the due balancing of outlay by income. The financier has to “cover” his outlay. There is, further, the duty of establishing a proper proportion between the several forms of expenditure. Not only has there to be a strict control over the total national expense; supervision has to be carried into each department of the state. No one branch of public activity is entitled to make unlimited calls on the state’s revenue. ”

“ Running through the different national systems there are some common elements the result not of inheritance merely but still more of necessity, or at the lowest of similarity in environment. Over and above the details of financial development there is a thread of connexion which requires treatment under Finance taken as a whole. As the great aim of this side of public activity is to secure funds for the maintenance of the state’s life and working, the administration which operates for this end is the true nucleus of all national finance. ”

“ Large functions in connection with public finance, likewise, are vested in the body. By it the annual budget is prepared, the accounts which the Empire carries with the states are audited, and important supervisory relations with the Imperial Bank, the Imperial Debt Commission, and other fiscal agencies, are maintained. ”