Supplementary estimates of appropriations

Introduction - Supplementary Estimates 2018/19

Formats and related files

Purpose of the Supplementary Estimates of Appropriations#

The Supplementary Estimates of Appropriations (the Supplementary Estimates) provides members of Parliament with details of changes to existing appropriations and of new appropriations proposed since the Estimates for 2018/19 were finalised.  The Supplementary Estimates also shows proposed changes to capital injections to Departments and Offices of Parliament.

There is one new Vote in the Supplementary Estimates that was not in the 2018/19 Estimates of Appropriations, Vote Housing and Urban Development.  Full information is provided for this Vote.

While many of the appropriation and capital injection changes will have already been given effect through the authority of an Imprest Supply Act, they must still be appropriated or authorised in an Appropriation Act for the current financial year.

The Supplementary Estimates is presented to the House of Representatives at the same time as the Government introduces a second Appropriation Bill for the current financial year.

Purpose and Nature of Appropriations#

An appropriation is a statutory authority from Parliament allowing the Crown or an Office of Parliament to incur expenses or capital expenditure.

Neither the Crown nor an Office of Parliament can legally incur any expense or capital expenditure - as those terms are defined in the Public Finance Act 1989 (PFA) - unless it is expressly authorised by or under an Act of Parliament.

Limits Created by Appropriations

Each appropriation is allocated to, and managed as, one of seven types of appropriation.

Each appropriation also has a defined scope that limits the uses or activities for which the expenses or capital expenditure can be incurred.  The scope should be sufficient on its own to establish the nature and extent of the authority to incur expenses or capital expenditure.  The wording of the appropriation scope should achieve the balance between being sufficiently precise to act as an effective constraint against non-authorised activities and not so specific that it inadvertently limits activity intended to be authorised.

Except in a very limited number of cases (eg, permanent appropriations or revenue dependent appropriations) an appropriation also limits the amount of expenses or capital expenditure that can be incurred, and the time period within which those expenses or capital expenditure can be incurred.

Aside from the very limited exclusions provided for in the PFA, the amount of expense or capital expenditure authorised by an appropriation is measured in accordance with generally accepted accounting practice.

Responsibility for Appropriations

The PFA requires each appropriation to be the responsibility of one Minister (or the Speaker) and to be administered by one department (or an Office of Parliament).

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

Types of Appropriation#

The PFA provides for seven types of appropriation.  Four appropriation types authorise the incurring of expenses; one type authorises the incurring of capital expenditure; the remaining types authorises both. These appropriation types can be further differentiated by whether the expenses or capital expenditure are departmental or non-departmental transactions.

Appropriation Type Transaction Status Description
Output Expenses Departmental Authorises expenses to be incurred by a department or an Office of Parliament in supplying a specified category of outputs (goods and services).
Non-Departmental Authorises expenses to be incurred by the Crown (excluding departments) in purchasing a specified category of outputs (goods and services) from Crown entities or other third parties.
Benefits or Related Expenses Non-Departmental

Authorises expenses to be incurred by the Crown (excluding departments) in transferring resources (generally to individuals for their personal benefit) for which the Crown receives nothing directly in return.

Examples include the Jobseeker Support and Emergency Benefit, Student Allowances and various scholarships and awards.

Borrowing Expenses Departmental

Authorises the incurring of interest or other financing expenses for loans made to a department or an Office of Parliament, or public securities (undertakings that represent part of the public debt) issued by a department or an Office of Parliament.

In practice, limitations on the rights of departments to borrow or issue securities and limitations on how Offices of Parliament can be funded mean that this type of appropriation is unlikely to be used.

Non-Departmental

Authorises the incurring of interest or other financing expenses for loans made to the Crown (excluding departments), or public securities (undertakings thatrepresent part of the public debt) issued by the Crown.

Crown debt management is centralised, which means that most debt-servicing expenses appear in Vote Finance.

Other Expenses Departmental

Authorisesexpenses to be incurred by a department or an Office of Parliament that arenot either output expenses or borrowing expenses.

Otherexpenses should be used only for events that cannot be related back to outputproduction, such as redundancy costs arising from a government decision tocease purchasing certain types of outputs, or a loss on sale of assets madesurplus by departmental restructuring.

Non-Departmental

Authorises expenses to be incurred by the Crown (excluding departments) that are not structured or managed as output expenses, benefits or related expenses, or borrowing expenses.

Other expenses is the residual appropriation type, which should not be used where an appropriation could be better classified or managed as one of the other appropriation types (eg, as output expenses).

Examples include disposal of an asset for less than market value, grants to community organisations, subscriptions for membership of international bodies and remuneration of independent statutory officers.

Capital Expenditure Departmental Authorises capital expenditure to be incurred by a department or an Office of Parliamentto acquire or develop assets for the use of the department.
Non-Departmental Authorises capital expenditure to be incurred by the Crown (excluding departments) to acquire or develop Crown assets, including the purchase of equity, or making a loan to a person or organisation that is not a department.
Expenses or Capital Expenditure Incurred by an Intelligence and Security Department Departmental Authorises both expenses and capital expenditure to be incurred by the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service or the Government Communications Security Bureau.
Multi-Category Appropriations Departmental or Non-Departmental Allows separate categories of departmental output expenses, non-departmental output expenses, departmental other expenses, non-departmental other expenses, or non-departmental capital expenditure to be grouped together in one appropriation provided all the categories contribute to a single overarching purpose.

Types of Output Expense Appropriations

Some variation is possible for output expense appropriations. For example, the constraint on the amount of expense that can be incurred is not always a fixed sum.

Output Expense Appropriation Type and Authority Description, Constraints on Form and Typical Application

Standard Output Expense Appropriation

(section 7A(1)(a), Public Finance Act 1989)

Departmental or non-departmental: Authorises a department or an Office of Parliament to incur expenses in supplying a specified category of outputs (goods and services), or the Crown (excluding departments) to incur expenses to purchase a specified class of outputs.

Annual or multi-year: The authority lapses at the end of the financial year or multi-year period specified.

Single category of output expenses only: The scope is limited to a single category of outputs (defined as a grouping of similar outputs).

Amount limited by Appropriation Act: The amount of a standard output expense appropriation is limited to a set amount of New Zealand dollars specified in an Appropriation Act.

Typical application: The normal or default form for an output expense appropriation, used for a wide range of outputs for which the flexibility offered by the other types of output expense appropriation is not required.

Revenue-Dependent Appropriations (RDA)

(section 21(1), Public Finance Act 1989)

Departmental only: Authorises a department or an Office of Parliament to incur expenses in supplying a specified category of outputs (goods and services) that are not paid for directly by the Crown.

A proposed RDA must be approved by the Minister of Finance, before it is presented in the Estimates.  Each category of outputs for which an RDA is approved is listed in an Appropriation Act for the relevant financial year.

Annual only: The authority lapses at the end of the financial year specified.

Single category of output expenses only: The scope of an RDA is limited to a single category of outputs (defined as a grouping of similar outputs).

Amount limited by amount of revenue earned: The amount of an RDA is limited to the amount of revenue earned by a department or an Office of Parliament from other departments or from parties other than the Crown during a financial year.  The Minister of Finance can further direct a department to incur expenses to a level lower than the amount of revenue earned, though such directions are rare.

Typical application: An RDA provides flexibility to respond to unanticipated changes in the level of external demand for a class of outputs, where the full cost of the outputs is met by external parties and not the Crown.

Appropriation Period

Three different kinds of appropriation can be distinguished on the basis of period - annual and multi-year (as referred to in the above table on the types of output expense appropriations), and permanent:

  • Annual Appropriations - Most appropriations allow expenses or capital expenditure to be incurred only during a particular financial year.  The amounts for RDAs are forecasts only.
  • Multi-Year Appropriations (MYAs) - The PFA also permits appropriations that allow expenses or capital expenditure to be incurred during a specified period that spans the whole or parts of more than one financial year, but no more than five financial years.  
  • Permanent Appropriations (sometimes referred to as permanent legislative authorities or PLAs) -Permanent appropriations are authorised by legislation other than an Appropriation Act and continue in effect until revoked by Parliament.  Generally the authorising legislation will impose limits on the scope of the appropriation and not its amount.  For those appropriations with limits set in cash terms, section 11(2) of the PFA requires that they be reported on an accrual basis.  The usual legislative wording allows for expenses or capital expenditure to be incurred for the purpose specified in the legislation “without further appropriation than this section”.  The scope of a permanent appropriation will reference the relevant section of the authorising legislation.

Types of Crown Revenue and Capital Receipts#

An operating and capital split applies to Crown revenue and receipts.  The following table outlines the three revenue/receipt types:

Crown Revenue Type Transaction Type Description
Tax Revenue Non-Departmental Tax payable to the Crown, such as Income Tax, GST and Fringe Benefit Tax.
Non-Tax Revenue Non-Departmental Revenue earned by the Crown from its investing and other operating activities.  Examples include interest income, capital charges and dividends from State-owned enterprises.
Capital Receipts Non-Departmental

Capital received by the Crown:

  • when loans are raised (which appear in Vote Finance) or repayments of principal are made on debts owed to the Crown (for example, in Vote Social Development), or
  • when capital assets are sold.

Capital Injections and Movements in Net Assets#

A capital injection is an investment by the Crown in a department (or an Office of Parliament), which increases the department’s net asset balance.  Section 12A of the PFA requires capital injections to departments or an Office of Parliament to be authorised under an Appropriation Act.

Further information on capital injections and other movements in a department’s net asset balance appears in the Supplementary Estimates in a Vote that has appropriations belonging to a department’s responsible Minister.  The movements reconcile a department’s opening and closing net asset balances.  This makes it easier to see the balance sheet flows.

Movement Type Description
Capital injections Investment by the Crown in a department, which increases the department's closing net asset balance.
Capital withdrawals Returns of capital by a department to the Crown, which reduce the department's closing net asset balance.
Surplus to be retained/(deficit incurred) The net surplus forecast to be retained by a department from its operations for a financial year in accordance with section 22(1) of the PFA, or the forecast deficit for the department.  A surplus or deficit will, respectively, increase or decrease the department's closing net asset balance.
Other movements This section is for any other movements that will affect the department's net asset balance. For example movements in asset revaluation reserves.

Guide to Reading the Supplementary Estimates of Appropriations#

The Supplementary Estimates of Appropriation contains this Introduction and, for each Vote, details of appropriations, capital injections, and supporting information.  The Supplementary Estimates presents Votes in alphabetic order (Vote Arts, Culture and Heritage to Vote Women), not by sector.

Layout of Each Vote

The title page for each Vote for which there are changes and for the new Vote Housing and Urban Development specifies the Minister(s) responsible for existing and proposed appropriations in the Vote, the administering department for the Vote, and the responsible Minister for that department.

Tables containing the following information (where applicable) are then provided on each appropriation referred to in the Appropriation (2018/19 Estimates) Act 2018 and Appropriation (2018/19 Supplementary Estimates) Bill, other current appropriations, and capital injection authorisations:

  • Annual and Permanent Appropriations - The type, title, scope and amount of each annual and permanent appropriation.  Any changes to the annual amounts, for which parliamentary authorisation is sought in the Appropriation (2018/19 Supplementary Estimates) Bill, are shown in bold type. As permanent appropriations have already been approved by Parliament, their amounts are forecasts, not a limit, so are not shown in bold type.
  • Annual and Permanent Appropriations - The type, title, scope and amount of each annual and permanent appropriation.  Any changes to the annual amounts, for which parliamentary authorisation is sought in the Appropriation (2018/19 Supplementary Estimates) Bill, are shown in bold type. As permanent appropriations have already been approved by Parliament, their amounts are forecasts, not a limit, so are not shown in bold type.
  • Multi-Year Appropriations (MYAs) - The type, title, scope and amount of each MYA, including any adjustments since originally appropriated, amounts incurred or estimated for particular years, and the estimated remaining balance.
  • Total Annual, Permanent and Multi-Year Appropriations - The Total Annual and Permanent Appropriations and MYA forecasts by appropriation type. This table summarises total appropriations for the Vote.
  • Capital Injection Authorisations - The name of the department seeking the additional capital and the amount for which parliamentary authority is sought in the Appropriation (2018/19 Supplementary Estimates) Bill.

The Supporting Informationfor each Vote follows immediately after the Supplementary Estimates for that Vote.

Supporting Information (where applicable)

If particular information is not applicable to a Vote or a specific appropriation or type, or is otherwise unavailable, the relevant heading is not included. For the new vote, Housing and Urban Development full supporting information is provided as is required in the Estimates of Appropriations.

Part 1 - Vote as a Whole

Part 1.2 Summary of Financial Activity - A table showing changes since the beginning of the financial year.

Part 1.4 Reconciliation of Changes in Appropriation Structure - A table providing a reconciliation and explanation of any changes in the structure or classification of appropriations (and categories within MCAs) made in the Budget year.  This table is used only when information additional to that provided for an appropriation under the Reasons for Change heading is required.

Part 1.5 Relationship between individual Appropriations and the Work Programme - An optional table to be used to describe the work in a new Vote or when the relationship between individual new appropriations and the work programmeis not readily apparent from the other information provided on each appropriation.

The order of Parts 2 - 4 of the supporting information on each appropriation follows that used for the 2018/19 Estimates of Appropriations, with all departmental appropriations presented first, followed by non-departmental appropriations and then by multi-category appropriations.

This information in Parts 2 to 4 includes (depending on appropriation type):

  • for existing appropriations that have increased or decreased - the reasons for that change
  • for the new Vote:
    • all the information required in the Estimates of Appropriations
  • for new appropriations:
    • details of expenses and revenue for departmental output expenses appropriations, and of expenses or expenditure for other appropriations
    • a concise statement of what is intended to be achieved for each appropriation
    • a concise explanation of how performance will be assessed for each appropriation, or a statement of why it is exempt from end-of-year reporting
    • who will report after the end of the financial year on what was achieved with the appropriation
    • in which document the report will be presented to the House of Representatives.
  • The suite of documents presented to the House on Budget day can be accessed in the Budgets section of the website: https://treasury.govt.nz/publications/budgets/budget-2019
  • The Summary Tables, which are available online, provide a high-level perspective and comparative “ready reference” for all appropriations (annual, permanent and multi-year).  They cover:
    • aggregates for all Votes - showing totals for the Estimates and Supplementary Estimates for 2018/19 with respect to each type of appropriation and of Crown revenue and capital receipts
    • each appropriation type and total appropriations for each Vote - showing totals of the Estimates and Supplementary Estimates for 2018/19
    • multi-category expenses and capital expenditure (MCAs)
    • current-year revenue-dependent appropriations
    • multi-year appropriations by Vote, appropriation type and period
    • capital injections for Departments and Offices of Parliament, and
    • types of Crown revenue and Crown capital receipts for 2018/19 associated with each Vote.

For inclusion in the Summary Tables, MYAs are converted into actual or forecast amounts for each financial year. The summary tables can be accessed here:
https://treasury.govt.nz/publications/summary-tables/supplementary-estimates-appropriations-2018-19

Terms and Definitions#

The table below contains terms that are used in the Supplementary Estimates of Appropriations.

Terms and Definitions Table
Appropriation An appropriation is a parliamentary authorisation for the Crown or an Office of Parliament to incur expenses or capital expenditure.
Appropriation Minister The Minister responsible for specific appropriations being sought within a Vote.  As several Ministers may now hold appropriations within a single Vote, each appropriation will have a tag (M1, M2 etc) identifying the Minister responsible for that line item.
Appropriation scope One of the defining terms of an appropriation that establishes limits on the activities for which the Crown or an Office of Parliament is authorised to incur expenses or capital expenditure under that appropriation.
Capital expenditure The cost of assets acquired or developed including any ownership interest in entities, but excluding inventory.
Capital injection Investment by the Crown in a department, which increases the department’s net asset balance.
Capital withdrawals Returns of capital by a department to the Crown, which reduce the department’s closing net asset balance.
Category A grouping of similar or related expenses or a grouping of similar or related capital expenditure.
Crown revenue Revenue earned on behalf of the Crown. These flows are accounted for as revenue to the Crown rather than as departmental revenue.
Department Generally references to Departments also include an Office of Parliament as provided in section 26E(5) of the PFA.
Expenses Amounts consumed or losses of service potential or future economic benefits, other than those relating to capital withdrawals, in a financial year.  Expenses are an accrual concept measured in accordance with generally accepted accounting practice.
GST Goods and services tax.  Appropriations are stated GST exclusive.
MCA Multi-category appropriation.
MYA Multi-year appropriation.
N/A Not applicable.
Office of Parliament There are three Offices of Parliament - the Office of the Controller and Auditor-General, the Office of the Ombudsmen, and the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. Each is headed by an Officer of Parliament.
Outputs Goods or services supplied by departments and other entities to external parties.  Outputs are a variety of types, including policy advice, administration of contracts and grants, and the provision of specific services.
PFA Public Finance Act 1989.
PLA Permanent legislative authority - a traditional term for a permanent appropriation, ie, one that is authorised for an indefinite period by legislation other than an Appropriation Act.
RDA Revenue-dependent appropriation - as authorised by section 21(1) of the PFA 1989.
Responsible Minister The Minister responsible for the financial performance of a department or Crown entity. In relation to an Office of Parliament, the Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives, and the Parliamentary Service, the Speaker is the responsible Minister.
Revenue from the Crown Revenue earned by a department from the Crown for the provision of outputs to or on behalf of the Crown.  These flows are accounted for as departmental revenue.   Revenue from the Crown is eliminated for purposes of reporting the Crown’s overall financial performance and position.
Revenue from Others Revenue earned by a department from other departments and from third parties.  Revenue from other departments is eliminated for purposes of reporting the Crown’s overall financial performance and position.
Vote A grouping of one or more appropriations that are the responsibility of one or more Ministers of the Crown and are administered by the one department or Office of Parliament.