Guidelines for reviewing departmental requests for access to the Government Contingencies V

SUBJECT:  Guidelines for reviewing departmental requests for access to the Government Contingencies Vote

As you know, the use of Treasury Board Vote 5, Government Contingencies has been identified as an area of concern by the Director General (April 2002, Chapter 8), the Public Accounts Committee as well as the Senate National Finance Committee. Of particular concern is the provision of Vote 5 funding and authority to authorize new grants or increases to existing grants in advance of parliamentary approval. To this end, I thought that it would be timely to provide you with a complete set of the draft guidelines the TBS are using to review departmental requests for access to the Government Contingencies Vote. These draft guidelines are attached.

It is important to note that when assessing approval for access to Treasury Board Vote 5, and in particular for grant items, Treasury Board Ministers consider whether departments provide an explanation of the requirements in their submissions to satisfy the following key criteria:

·         When making a transfer to provide authority for a payment, there must be valid and sufficient reason why the payment must be made before normal parliamentary approval is received. If the payment could reasonably be deferred until Supplementary Estimates are tabled and Parliamentary authority granted via an appropriation act, the contingency funding should not be provided to grant such authority.

·         The department's existing appropriated authority must be insufficient to cover existing requirements and those of the new initiative (excluding grant items) until the end of the current Supply period.

In addition, as a general rule, permanent charges will not be made to the Vote for requirements other than paylist shortfalls or awards under the Public Service Inventions Act. All other advances from the Contingencies Vote should be considered temporary advances to be covered by items included in subsequent Supplementary Estimates and reimbursed when the associated appropriation act is passed.

Funds requested from Vote 5 should cover only the urgent cash requirements until the passage of Supply within the normal Supply period.

While I have only highlighted a few of the key guidelines, TBS staff will be assessing all requests involving access to Vote using the attached draft guidelines.

Departments will be expected to include their rationale for access to Vote 5, Government Contingencies for funding and temporary authorities in the remarks section of their submissions.

As in the past TBS analysts will be working with your senior staff to assess the requirement for access to Vote 5, amongst other considerations.  The responses to questions on these guidelines will help in the formulation of their recommendations and will be included in the advice provided to Ministers of the Treasury Board.

Inquiries

Any questions you may have concerning this memorandum should be directed to your Program Analyst.

The Treasury Board Secretariat's eight guidelines to reviewing departmental requests for access to the Government Contingencies Vote

1. As the authority for payments out of the contingencies fund is contained in the Vote 5 wording, all such payments must be fully consistent with that wording itself (if necessary, they could be legitimate charges to Vote 5).
2. As a general rule, permanent charges will not be made to the Vote for requirements other than paylist shortfalls or awards under the Public Service Inventions Act . All other advances from the Contingencies Vote should be considered temporary advances to be covered by items included in subsequent Supplementary Estimates and reimbursed when the associated appropriation act is passed.
3. When cash advances are requested to meet a financial requirement, the Treasury Board must be assured that the payment is within the legal mandate of the department and that there is a valid cash requirement that must be met before Supplementary Estimates are approved.
4. When making a transfer to provide authority for a payment, the Treasury Board must be satisfied that there is valid and sufficient reason why the payment must be made before normal parliamentary approval is received. If the payment could reasonably be deferred until Supplementary Estimates are tabled and Parliamentary authority granted via an appropriation act, the contingency funding should not be provided to grant such authority.

5. Sufficient funds must be available within Treasury Board Vote 5.
6. The department's existing appropriated authority must be insufficient to cover existing requirements and those of the new initiative (excluding grant items) until the end of the current Supply period.
7. There must be a sense of urgency related to the initiative such that the expenditure must be made prior to Parliament's approval of the item in an appropriation act.

8. There must be a valid, legally incorporated recipient in existence to whom the grant is to be paid.