Responsibility for Appropriations

Each appropriation is the responsibility of a designated Minister, who controls the right to use that appropriation within the limits authorised by Parliament. A department is also assigned to administer that appropriation in accordance with the Minister's wishes concerning its use.

A Vote is a group of appropriations (and can be a single appropriation) administered by a single department. Different appropriations within a Vote may be the responsibility of different Ministers.

Relationship to Other Documents

The chart on the following two pages shows how each type of appropriation in the Estimates relates to information in other documents presented prior to the start of the financial year and to annual reports presented after the end of the financial year.

Other documents presented to the House prior to or near the start of a financial year are:

• The Information Supporting the Estimates [B.5A Vol.1-Vol.10] which is presented on Budget day and consists of 10 volumes each of which sets out details of the services to be purchased, or the transfer payments to be made, or the capital expenditure to be incurred from each appropriation in the Votes in the sector to which the volume relates.
• Each department's statement of intent which is attached to the relevant sector volume of the Information Supporting the Estimates [B.5A Vol.1-Vol.10] presented on Budget day and sets out the department's future operating intentions for at least the next three financial years.
• Each Crown entity's statement of intent which is presented shortly after Budget day and sets out the Crown entity's future operating intentions for at least the next three financial years.

Annual reports presented to the House after the end of a financial year:

• Each department's annual report and financial statements which is presented 3-4 months after the end of the financial year and includes reporting on:
  • the services provided from each departmental output expense appropriation compared with what was forecast to be provided, and
  • the actual expenses or capital expenditure incurred against each appropriation (and each component output class in a multi-class output appropriation) administered by the department.
• Each Crown entity's annual report and financial statements which is presented 4-5 months after the end of the financial year and includes reporting on the services supplied by the Crown entity that have been funded by the government compared with what was forecast to be provided.
• Ministers' reports under section 32A of the Public Finance Act which are presented 3 months after the end of the financial year and report on significant non-departmental appropriations where the services provided or results achieved with the expenditure authorised by the appropriation are not reported in a department's or Crown entity's annual report, because the services have been provided or the funding used, by a body that is not a department or Crown entity.

The chart on the next two pages shows how each type of appropriation in the Estimates relates to the information in the Information Supporting the Estimates and statements of intent presented to the House prior to the start of a financial year and to the annual reports presented to the House after the end of that financial year.