Budget Transfer: Voluntary Redundancy unanticipated savings

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A decision made on 25 July 2011:

Decision Reference:
Decision Summary Title:	Budget Transfer for the return of 2011 Voluntary Redundancy (VR) Unanticipated Departmental Savings to the Treasury and Resources Department		Date of Decision Summary:	23rd June 2011
Decision Summary Author:	Assistant Director - Finance		Decision Summary: Public or Exempt?	Public
Type of Report: Oral or Written?	Written		Person Giving Oral Report:	N/A
Written Report Title:	Budget Transfer for the return of 2011 Voluntary Redundancy (VR) Unanticipated Departmental Savings to the Treasury and Resources Department		Date of Written Report:	23rd June 2011
Written Report Author:	Assistant Director - Finance		Written Report : Public or Exempt?	Public
Subject: Budget transfer for the return of 2011 Voluntary Redundancy (VR) unanticipated departmental savings to Treasury and Resources (T&R).
Decision(s): The Minister approved a budget transfer of £104,533 from the Education, Sport and Culture Department to the Treasury and Resources Department (T&R).
Reason(s) for Decision: Financial Direction 3.6 states that Departments wanting to transfer funds between heads of expenditure must obtain the approval of their Minister or of their accounting officer where a scheme of delegation exists.
Resource Implications: The Education, Sport and Culture Department revenue head of expenditure to decrease by £104,533 and the T&R contingency head of expenditure to increase by an identical amount.
Action required: Education, Sport and Culture Assistant Director - Finance to inform the T&R Head of Financial Performance Reporting that this decision has been approved.
Signature:		Position: Minister for Education, Sport and Culture
Date Signed:		Date of Decision: (If different from Date Signed):

Budget Transfer: Voluntary Redundancy unanticipated savings

Education, Sport and Culture

Ministerial Decision Report

BUDGET TRANSFER FOR THE RETURN OF 2011 VOLUNTARY REDUNDANCY (VR) UNANTICIPATED DEPARTMENTAL SAVINGS TO THE TREASURY AND RESOURCES DEPARTMENT

Purpose of Report

To enable the Minister for Education, Sport and Culture to approve a budget transfer of £104,533 for the return of 2011 Voluntary Redundancy (VR) unanticipated departmental savings to Treasury and Resources (T&R).

Background

In P64/2010: “Public Finances (Jersey) Law 2005: Funding Requests under Article 11(8)” the States approved funding of up to an additional £6,000,000 from the consolidated fund for the Chief Minister’s Department for a Voluntary Redundancy (VR) scheme. Following States approval on 7th July 2010, £6 million was withdrawn from the consolidated fund and held temporarily in a Treasury and Resources contingency fund.

Following various approvals (MD-TR-2010-0159, MD-TR-2010-0186 and MD-TR-2010-0189), a total of £6,459,291 (including a transfer of funding from the Social Security Department) was transferred to departments to pay for successful VR applications. Further funds totalling £318,536 were returned from departments in 2011 for VR applications no longer going ahead (£307,926) and to correct one original calculation error (£10,610). After taking these into account, total funding used by departments for VR was £6,140,755. In addition, a sum of £11,550 was used to fund actuarial valuations.

The total sum allocated to the Department for Education, Sport and Culture to meet the cost of VR applications was £712,844.

Unanticipated Departmental Savings

Funding allocated to departments as a result of P64/2010 permitted, in some cases, voluntary redundancies to take place earlier than anticipated. Where departments had not included savings in their CSR submissions for 2011 it was agreed by the Chief Officers concerned that any unanticipated savings in 2011 would be returned for reallocation by the Minister for Treasury and Resources. This decision affects those returns of savings agreed by Chief Officers.

Of the VR applications funded, there was two in respect of Assistant Managers at Fort Regent which are not included in the Department’s CSR savings profile until 2013 and therefore the savings have been achieved early.

Recommendation

The Minister is recommended to approve a budget transfer of £105,533 from the Education, Sport and Culture Department to T&R.

5. Reasons for Decision

Financial Direction 3.6 states that Departments wanting to transfer funds between heads of expenditure must obtain the approval of their Minister or of their accounting officer where a scheme of delegation exists.

6. Resource Implications

The Education, Sport and Culture Department revenue head of expenditure to decrease by £104,533 and the T&R contingency head of expenditure to increase by an identical amount.

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