Mauritius
Finance and Audit Act
Act 38 of 1973
- Commenced on 1 July 1973
- [This is the version of this document at 30 June 2017.]
Part I – Preliminary
1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Finance and Audit Act.2. Interpretation
In this Act—"appropriate Minister", in relation to a Ministry, Government department or statutory body, means the Minister to whom responsibility for the Ministry, Government department or statutory body, as the case may be, is assigned;"bank" means the Bank of Mauritius, the Development Bank of Mauritius and any other bank licensed under the Banking Act;"capital project" means an intervention relating to acquisition or preservation, or to both acquisition and preservation of non-financial assets for meeting defined objectives and consisting of a set of interrelated activities to be carried out within a specified budget and a time-schedule;"centralised services of Government" means the services referred to in the Schedule to the appropriation law in respect of any fiscal year;"Commissioner" means the Commissioner responsible for the subject of finance under the Rodrigues Regional Assembly Act;"department" means—(a)any Government department and the body in the Schedule to the appropriation law in respect of any fiscal year;(b)in respect of centralised services of Government, the Ministry responsible for the subject of finance;"estimates"—(a)means the annual estimates of revenue and expenditure, both recurrent and capital, in respect of the services of the Government, prepared on a 3-fiscal year rolling basis, the estimates for the first year of every such period of 3 fiscal years requiring approval by the National Assembly; and(b)includes any supplementary estimates so approved;"financial instructions" means instructions issued under section 22;"fiscal year" has the same meaning as "financial year" in section 111 of the Constitution;"General Orders" means instructions, including instructions in the form of the Personnel Management Manual issued under the authority of Government for, inter alia, the conduct and discipline of public officers;"head of expenditure"—(a)means the vote of expenditure contained in the estimates for a fiscal year in respect of a department; and(b)includes the vote of expenditure in respect of centralised services of Government in respect of all departments;"Minister" means the Minister to whom responsibility for the subject of finance is assigned;"public money" includes—(a)the public revenues of Government; and(b)any money or funds held in his official capacity, whether temporarily or otherwise, by a public officer, either alone or jointly with any person;"Regional Assembly" means the Rodrigues Regional Assembly established under section 75A of the Constitution;"revenue" means any cess, toll, tax, rate, duty, fee, fine, penalty, forfeiture, proceeds of sale, loan, grant or other receipt and due of Government arising from whatever source, and over which Parliament has the power of appropriation;"Rodrigues Capital Fund" means the Rodrigues Capital Fund established under section 75D of the Constitution;"Rodrigues Consolidated Fund" means the Rodrigues Consolidated Fund established under section 75D of the Constitution;"Special Fund" means a fund specified in the Schedule.[S. 2 amended by s. 23 (2) of Act 48 of 1991 w.e.f. 12 March 1992; s. 75 (b) of Act 39 of 2001 w.e.f. 30 September 2002; s. 13 (a) of Act 17 of 2007 w.e.f. 1 July 2007; s. 3 of Act 4 of 2008 w.e.f 1 July 2008; s. 5 (a) of Act 1 of 2009 w.e.f. 1 July 2008; s. 3 of Act 1 of 2015 w.e.f. 1 January 2015; s. 19 (a) of Act 18 of 2016 w.e.f. 7 September 2016.]2A. Financial year
For the purposes of section 111 of the Constitution, "financial year" means the period of 12 months ending on 30 June in every year.[S. 2A inserted by s. 5 (b) of Act 1 of 2009 w.e.f. 1 July 2009; amended by s. 4 of Act 1 of 2015 w.e.f. 1 January 2015.]Part II – Finance
3. Consolidated Fund
3A. Carry-over of capital expenditure
Where an amount has been appropriated by the National Assembly for the purpose included in an item of capital expenditure for a fiscal year and the amount earmarked for a project has not already been fully incurred or reallocated to any other item of capital expenditure at the end of that fiscal year, the balance of the provision earmarked for that project may be carried over to a period not exceeding 3 months in the following fiscal year without the necessity for further appropriation by the National Assembly but shall be subject to such limitations and conditions as may be specified in financial instructions issued under section 22.[S. 3A inserted by s. 5 of Act 1 of 2015 w.e.f. 1 January 2015.]4. Vote on account
4A. Fiscal rule
The public sector debt shall be governed by the ceiling referred to in section 7 of the Public Debt Management Act.[S. 4A inserted by s. 6 of Act 4 of 2008 w.e.f. 1 July 2008.]5. Provision for contingencies
6. Other advances from Consolidated Fund
7. ***
8. Deposits
9. Special Funds
10. ***
[S. 10 repealed by s. 11 of Act 4 of 2008 w.e.f. 1 July 2008.]11. ***
[S. 11 repealed by s. 13 (d) of Act 17 of 2007 w.e.f. 1 July 2007.]12. ***
[S. 12 repealed by s. 13 (d) of Act 17 of 2007 w.e.f. 1 July 2007.]13. ***
[S. 13 repealed by s. 13 (d) of Act 17 of 2007 w.e.f. 1 July 2007.]14. ***
[S. 14 repealed by s. 13 (d) of Act 17 of 2007 w.e.f. 1 July 2007.]14A. ***
[S. 14A inserted by Act 15 of 1997; amended by Act 19 of 1999; repealed by s. 8 (a) of Act 23 of 2001 w.e.f. 1 July 2001.]Part III – Audit and accounts
15. Powers of auditors
Anything which, under the authority of this Act or of any other enactment, may be done by the Director of Audit, other than the certifying of and reporting on accounts for the National Assembly, may be done by an officer of his staff authorised by him.16. Duties of Director of Audit
17. Powers of Director of Audit
17A. Protection from liability
18. Losses and irregularities
Where it appears to the Director of Audit that a fraud, serious loss or serious irregularity has occurred in the receipt, custody or expenditure of public money or in the receipt, custody, issue, sale, transfer or delivery of any stamps, securities, stores or other Government property, or in the accounting of the same, he shall immediately bring the matter to the notice of the Financial Secretary who shall forthwith report the matter to the Minister.19. Annual statements
20. Annual certificates and reports
Part IV – Miscellaneous
20A. Financial activities
21. Designation of officers
22. Financial instructions
22A. Capital Project Process Manual
22B. Non-compliance with instructions
Where a public officer does not comply with—23. Delegation of powers
The Minister may delegate to the Financial Secretary any of the powers exercisable by him under this Act, other than those specified in sections 6 (4), 9 (2), 9 (3) and 24.23A. ***
24. Regulations
25. ***
History of this document
30 June 2017 this version
Consolidation
01 July 1973
Commenced