Section 25, The Government Budgeting and Accountability Act, 2005

(1) The expenditure classification outlined in paragraph (e) of section 23 shall constitute the structure for appropriation by Parliament, the spending limits, accounting and reporting. (2) The appropriation for public debt service payments shall be included under the vote of the Ministry. revenues and expenditure. Structure of appropriations. No. 3 Government Budgeting and Accountability Act 2005No. 3 Government Budgeting and Accountability Act 200522 23 Expenditure ahead of appropriation. (3) The Minister shall have the authority to make all payments to meet the debt obligations of Sierra Leone by their due dates, even if they exceed the appropriations therefor or have no appropriation by then; and the Minister shall report such payments to Parliament within three days after they have been made. (4) There shall be provided in the budget, within the vote of the Ministry, an unallocated head of expenditure under the same heading, for emergencies and for situations of exceptional nature which cannot be predicted in advance and which have not been included under any budget classification: Provided that the total amount of unallocated expenditure in the budget, excluding external grants, shall not exceed two percent of total revenues in any financial year. (5) The Minister shall be in charge of the unallocated expenditure head, and any transaction under that head shall be allocated to the appropriate vote and – (a) reported to Parliament and the Auditor- General within fifteen working days; and (b) published for the information of the general public. (6) The Minister shall maintain and provide the following revenue and expenditure data– (a) actual data for the year before the current year; (b) revised estimates for the current year; (c) estimates for the budget year; and (d) preliminary projections, in broad categories, for revenue and expenditures of two years after the budget year. (7) The Speaker may, by resolution of Parliament, hire temporally, or permanently a small core of technical staff to assist in gathering information, making research and analysis on issues pertinent to its deliberation and resolution on the budget submitted to Parliament by the Minister. PART V–BUDGET EXECUTION, ADJUSTMENT AND CONTROL