Departments and Offices of Parliament

The Treasury's Role

Treasury has a number of roles and responsibilities in relation to Government departments and Offices of Parliament. These range from specific duties relating to financial management and reporting, through to the provision of second-opinion advice on policies that have economic or fiscal impacts. As part of this, the Treasury administers the Public Finance Act 1989 that exists to govern the use of public financial resources, particularly the administration and use of resources by departments.

Treasury interacts with Offices of Parliament in similar ways, with variations to recognise that, unlike departments, they are independent of the Executive (Cabinet and Ministers) and report directly to Parliament through the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

A list of public service departments is available on the SSC website.

The Treasury has the following information on its website relating to departments and Offices of Parliament:

Guidance and Instructions

• Reporting and Review - Guidance on producing accountability information including annual reports, statements of intent and output plans.
• Budget - Guides relating to the Budget process and the preparation of departments' Budget documents.
• Appropriations - Guidance on what appropriations are and how to use them.
• Treasury Instructions and Treasury Circulars
• Implementation, Management, Monitoring Guidance on the Public Sector Performance and Financial Management System
• Monitoring of Crown Entities
• Performance focused guidance - including the Cost Benefit Analysis Primer.
• Public Finance Overviews

Budget Information about Departments and Offices of Parliament

The government's Budget is organised according to 'vote' rather than by department. For example, 'Vote Health' indicates all health spending rather than spending by the Ministry of Health alone. For Budget information on spending in votes refer to the Estimates documents organised by vote in the Vote History Information.