Draft estimates will tide over departments

Press, 15 August 1984, Page 3

Draft estimates will tide over departments

By

MICHAEL HANNAH

in Wellington

Draft estimates of Government spending will keep Government departments ticking over until the Budget is presented in October. •The draft estimates, prepared for the previous Government, will allow Government departments to maintain normal running expenses while Cabinet Ministers undertake a review of policy changes in their portfolios. This emerged in a response to questions “The

Press” put last week to the Minister of Finance, Mr Douglas, on how the Government intended to cover its expenses until the Budget and Estimates for 198485 are presented. , A spokesman for Mr Douglas’s office yesterday said that Ministers were reviewing policy changes in their portfolios. Any changes they recommended would go through the appropriate Cabinet committee and then the Cabinet for approval. In the meantime, departments spent according to draft estimates which were normally prepared in the first three or four months of the financial year. The draft estimates being used at present were prepared for the previous Government and would have been ready by the end of June, the spokesman said.

Although some policy changes will not be announced until Budget night,

others, such as reforms of the export incentive schemes expected to be released today, will be announced earlier, though implementation could be later.

The Government is expected to receive further supply of funds from Parliament on Friday when an Imprest Supply Bill will be introduced and debated. The spending of this supply will be determined along the lines of the draft estimates, unless the Cabinet has decided on changes before the Budget is presented in October.