It is a basic constitutional principle that the Government can spend public money and incur expenses and capital expenditure only in accordance with appropriations made by an Act of Parliament and in an otherwise lawful manner.

However, Parliament has, in the Public Finance Act 1989 (the Act), conferred limited authority on the Minister of Finance to approve expenditure in excess of an existing appropriation by Parliament. Any other unappropriated expenditure must be validated by an Appropriation Act.

Section 4 of the Act prohibits the incurring of expenses or capital expenditure, except as expressly authorised by an appropriation, or other authority, by or under an Act. Sections 8 and 9 of the Act require appropriations to be limited to a specified amount and limited to the scope of the appropriation.

Section 26B of the Act authorises the Minister of Finance to approve the incurring of expenses or capital expenditure in the last 3 months of the financial year in excess, but within the scope, of an existing appropriation by Parliament. This is subject to a limit that is the greater of $10,000 and 2% of the total amount appropriated for that appropriation by all Appropriation Acts for that financial year. The approval must be given not later than 3 months after the end of the financial year concerned. Expenses and capital expenditure incurred under the approval must be confirmed in an Appropriation Bill that applies to that financial year.

This Bill confirms expenses incurred for the 2023/24 financial year with the approval of the Minister of Finance under section 26B of the Act (clause 5). Details of this confirmation are set out in Schedule 1.

Section 26C of the Act requires the incurring of expenses or capital expenditure without appropriation, or other authority, by or under an Act to be validated by an Act of Parliament.

For the 2023/24 financial year, certain expenses were incurred that require validation by this Bill in accordance with section 26C of the Act. Clause 6 validates these expenses, the details of which are set out in Schedules 2 and 3 as follows:

• Schedule 2 contains details of expenses incurred in excess of existing appropriations:

• Schedule 3 contains details of expenses that were incurred without appropriation or other authority (including expenses incurred outside the scope of an existing appropriation and expenses incurred without appropriation at all).

This Bill also validates expenses incurred in the 2021/22 and 2022/23 financial years by the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment in excess of an existing appropriation and in the 2022/23 financial year by the Inland Revenue Department without appropriation, or other authority, by or under an Act.

Section 12A of the Act prohibits the making of capital injections to a department (other than an intelligence and security department) or an Office of Parliament unless the capital injection is authorised under an Appropriation Act (subject to section 25A of the Act, which permits the Minister of Finance to approve unauthorised capital injections to meet emergencies). Section 26CA of the Act requires a capital injection that is made in contravention of section 12A to be validated by an Act of Parliament.

This Bill validates capital injections made in the 2023/2024 financial year for the purposes of section 26CA of the Act.

A departmental disclosure statement is not required for this Bill.