Financial Administration Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. F-11)

Marginal note:Payment out of C.R.F.

• 24 (1) Remissions granted under this Act or any other Act of Parliament may be paid out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

• Marginal note:Report in Public Accounts

  (2) Remissions granted under this or any other Act of Parliament during a fiscal year shall be reported in the Public Accounts for that year in such form as the Treasury Board may direct.

Marginal note:Forgiveness of debts and obligations

• 24.1 (1) Subject to subsection (2), no debt or obligation

  • (a) that is included in the statement of assets and liabilities of Canada referred to in subparagraph 64(2)(a)(iii), the forgiveness of which would result in a charge to an appropriation, or

  • (b) that is owing by a Crown corporation to Her Majesty

  shall be forgiven in whole or in part otherwise than by or under an Act of Parliament, including an appropriation Act.

• Marginal note:Debts, etc., included in statement of assets and liabilities

  (2) No debt or obligation referred to in paragraph (1)(a) shall be forgiven unless the amount to be forgiven is included as a budgetary expenditure in an appropriation Act or any other Act of Parliament.

• Marginal note:Forgiveness may be conditional

  (3) Where a debt or obligation is forgiven pursuant to subsection (1),

  • (a) the forgiveness may be conditional or unconditional;

  • (b) if the forgiveness is conditional and the condition is not fulfilled, the debt or obligation may be enforced, or all proceedings may be had, as if there had been no forgiveness; and

  • (c) a conditional forgiveness, on fulfilment of the condition, and an unconditional forgiveness release the person whose debt or obligation was forgiven from all further liability for the debt or obligation.

Marginal note:Report in Public Accounts

24.2 Forgiveness of a debt or obligation under this or any other Act of Parliament during a fiscal year shall be reported in the Public Accounts for that year in such form as the Treasury Board may direct.

Marginal note:Debt write-off regulations

• 25 (1) Subject to subsection (2), the Treasury Board may make regulations respecting the writing off, in whole or in part, of any debt or obligation due to Her Majesty or any claim by Her Majesty, and without restricting the generality of the foregoing, may make regulations prescribing

  • (a) the criteria for determining whether any debt, obligation or claim may be written off;

  • (b) the requirements to be met and the procedures to be followed before any debt, obligation or claim may be written off; and

  • (c) the information and records to be kept in respect of debts, obligations and claims that are written off.

• Marginal note:Exception

  (2) No debt, obligation or claim that is included in the statement of assets and liabilities of Canada referred to in subparagraph 64(2)(a)(iii), the writing off of which would result in a charge to an appropriation, shall be written off unless the amount to be written off is included as a budgetary expenditure in an appropriation Act or any other Act of Parliament.

• Marginal note:Effect of write-off

  (3) The writing off of any debt, obligation or claim pursuant to this section does not affect any right of Her Majesty to collect or recover the debt, obligation or claim.

• Marginal note:Report in Public Accounts

  (4) Any debt, obligation or claim written off under this or any other Act of Parliament during a fiscal year shall be reported in the Public Accounts for that year in such form as the Treasury Board may direct.

• (5) [Repealed, 1991, c. 24, s. 10]

PART IIIPublic Disbursements

Marginal note:Payments out of C.R.F.

26 Subject to the Constitution Acts, 1867 to 1982, no payments shall be made out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund without the authority of Parliament.

Marginal note:Estimates

27 All estimates of expenditures submitted to Parliament shall be in respect of payments during the fiscal year to which the estimates relate and expenditures that will be incurred during that fiscal year.

Marginal note:Warrant of Governor General

28 Where an appropriation is made for any purpose in any Act of Parliament for granting to Her Majesty any sum of money to defray expenses of the federal public administration for a fiscal year, no payment shall be made pursuant to that appropriation out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund unless a warrant, prepared on the order of the Governor in Council, has been signed by the Governor General authorizing expenditures to be charged against the appropriation, and no payments in excess of the amount of expenditures so authorized shall be made.

Marginal note:Payment of guarantee

• 29 (1) Where a guarantee has been given under the authority of Parliament by or on behalf of Her Majesty for the payment of any debt or obligation, any amount required to be paid by the terms of the guarantee may, subject to the Act authorizing the guarantee, be paid out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

• Marginal note:Authority for guarantee

  (2) An authority referred to in subsection (1) may be contained in an appropriation Act.

Marginal note:Expenditure of revenues by departmental corporations

• 29.1 (1) A departmental corporation may expend during a fiscal year, for the purposes of the departmental corporation, any revenues that it receives in that fiscal year through the conduct of its operations.

• Marginal note:Expenditure by departments

  (2) A department may, in respect of its approved programs or authorized expenditures, be authorized by an appropriation Act

  • (a) for the purposes that are specified in that Act, to expend revenues that it receives in a fiscal year through the conduct of its operations to offset expenditures that it incurs in that fiscal year; and

  • (b) for such purposes and with such drawdown limit as are specified in that Act, to establish a revolving fund.

• Marginal note:Amendment of revolving fund

  (3) The purposes and drawdown limit of a revolving fund referred to in subsection (2) may be amended by means of an appropriation Act.

• Marginal note:Limitation

  (4) The operation of a revolving fund and the spending of revenues pursuant to this or any other Act of Parliament is, in addition to any limitation imposed by statute, subject to such terms and conditions as the Treasury Board may direct.

Marginal note:Internal support services

• 29.2 (1) A department may provide internal support services to and receive internal support services from one or more other departments, and the provision of those services may be through collaboration among departments.

• Marginal note:Written agreement

  (2) Any department providing internal support services to another department must enter into an agreement in writing with that department respecting those services.

• Marginal note:Exception

  (3) Subsection (1) does not authorize a department to provide internal support services if, under an Act of Parliament, order of the Governor in Council or direction of Treasury Board,

  • (a) those services may only be provided by another department or body;

  • (b) departments must obtain those services from another department or body; or

  • (c) it is precluded from doing so.

• Marginal note:Definition of internal support services

  (4) In this section, internal support services means administrative activities that support

  • (a) human resources management services;

  • (b) financial management services;

  • (c) information management services;

  • (d) information technology services;

  • (e) communications services;

  • (f) real property services;

  • (g) materiel services;

  • (h) acquisition services; or

  • (i) any other administrative service that is designated by order of the Governor in Council.

Marginal note:Payments urgently required

• 30 (1) Subject to subsection (1.1), where a payment is urgently required for the public good

  • (a) at any time that Parliament is not in session from the date of a dissolution until 60 days following the date fixed for the return of the writs at the general election immediately following that dissolution, and

  • (b) there is no other appropriation pursuant to which the payment may be made,

  the Governor in Council, on the report of the President of the Treasury Board that there is no appropriation for the payment and the report of the appropriate Minister that the payment is urgently required for the public good, may, by order, direct the preparation of a special warrant to be signed by the Governor General authorizing the payment to be made out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

• Marginal note:No special warrants when Parliament prorogued

  (1.1) The Governor in Council shall not, in the 60 days referred to in subsection (1), direct the preparation of a special warrant referred to in that subsection when Parliament is not in session on any of those days by virtue of the fact that it is prorogued.

• Marginal note:Special warrant

  (2) A special warrant issued pursuant to this section shall for the purposes of this Act be deemed to be an appropriation for the fiscal year in which the warrant is issued.

• Marginal note:Publication and report

  (3) Every warrant issued under this section shall be published in the Canada Gazette within 30 days after it is issued, and a statement showing all warrants issued under this section and the amounts of those warrants shall be laid by the President of the Treasury Board before the House of Commons within 15 days after the commencement of the next ensuing session of Parliament.

• Marginal note:Subsequent appropriation

  (4) Where a special warrant has been issued pursuant to this section, the amounts appropriated thereby shall be deemed to be included in and not to be in addition to the amounts appropriated by the Act of Parliament enacted next thereafter for granting to Her Majesty sums of money to defray expenses of the federal public administration for a fiscal year.

• (5) [Repealed, 1997, c. 5, s. 1]

Marginal note:Appropriation allotments

• 31 (1) At the commencement of each fiscal year or at such other times as the Treasury Board may direct, the deputy head or other person charged with the administration of a service for which there is an appropriation by Parliament or an item included in estimates then before the House of Commons shall, unless otherwise directed by the Board, prepare a division of the appropriation or item into allotments in the form detailed in the estimates submitted to Parliament for the appropriation or item or in such other form as the Board may prescribe and shall submit the division to the Board.

• Marginal note:Allotments not to be varied without approval

  (2) Where a division required to be submitted to the Treasury Board pursuant to subsection (1) is approved by the Board, the allotments shall not be varied or amended without the approval of the Board.

• Marginal note:Departmental control of allotments

  (3) The deputy head or other person charged with the administration of a service for which a division is required to be prepared pursuant to subsection (1) shall ensure by an adequate system of internal control and audit that the allotments provided in that division are not exceeded.

Marginal note:Credits transferred

31.1 If an order is made under section 2 of the Public Service Rearrangement and Transfer of Duties Act, all of the unexpended money authorized by an Act of Parliament to be paid and applied for the purposes of any power, duty or function or control or supervision of a portion of the federal public administration that is transferred as a result of the operation of sections 2 and 3 of that Act is deemed to have been appropriated for the purposes of the power, duty, function, control or supervision to the department in, or portion of, the federal public administration to which it has been transferred.

Marginal note:Control of commitments

• 32 (1) No contract or other arrangement providing for a payment shall be entered into unless, to discharge any debt that will be due under the contract or other arrangement during the fiscal year in which the contract or other arrangement is entered into, there is a sufficient unencumbered balance available out of

  • (a) an appropriation by Parliament to which the payment will be charged;

  • (b) an item included in estimates then before the House of Commons to which the payment will relate;

  • (c) a commitment limit in an appropriation Act to which the payment will relate; or

  • (d) revenues received or estimated revenues set out in estimates, in the case of a payment that will be charged to an authority — under an appropriation Act or any other Act of Parliament — to expend revenues.

• Marginal note:Record of commitments

  (2) The deputy head or other person charged with the administration of a program for which there is an appropriation by Parliament or an item included in estimates then before the House of Commons shall, as the Treasury Board may prescribe, establish procedures and maintain records respecting the control of financial commitments chargeable to each appropriation or item.

Marginal note:Requisitions

• 33 (1) No charge shall be made against an appropriation except on the requisition of the appropriate Minister of the department for which the appropriation was made or of a person authorized in writing by that Minister.

• Marginal note:Form

  (2) Every requisition for a payment out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund shall be in such form, accompanied by such documents and certified in such manner as the Treasury Board may prescribe by regulation.

• Marginal note:When requisition not to be made

  (3) No requisition shall be made pursuant to subsection (1) for a payment that

  • (a) would not be a lawful charge against the appropriation;

  • (b) would result in an expenditure in excess of the appropriation; or

  • (c) would reduce the balance available in the appropriation so that it would not be sufficient to meet the commitments charged against it.

• Marginal note:Reference to Treasury Board

  (4) The appropriate Minister may transmit to the Treasury Board any requisition with respect to which that Minister desires the direction of the Board, and the Board may order that payment be made or refused.