Budget transfer from Treasury and Resources to Chief Minister's Department in relation to 2010 corporate savings target

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Budget transfer from Treasury and Resources to Chief Minister's Department in relation to 2010 corporate savings target.

Decision Reference: MD-C-2010-0091
Decision Summary Title :	Transfer of Budgets to Support 2010 Corporate Savings Target in Chief Minister’s Department		Date of Decision Summary:	10th December 2010
Decision Summary Author:	Finance Director – Corporate Group		Decision Summary: Public or Exempt?	Public
Type of Report: Oral or Written?	Written		Person Giving Oral Report:	N/A
Written Report Title :	Transfer of Budgets to Support 2010 Corporate Savings Target in Chief Minister’s Department		Date of Written Report:	10th December
Written Report Author:	Finance Director – Corporate Group		Written Report : Public or Exempt?	Public
Subject: Transfer of £300,000 from the Treasury and Resources Department to Chief Minister’s Department to contribute to the 2010 Corporate Savings target.
Decision(s): The Minister approved the transfer of £300k from the Treasury and Resources Department to the Chief Minister’s Department in order to support the meeting of the 2010 Corporate Savings target as detailed in the accompanying report.
Reason(s) for Decision: Article 15(1)(a) of the Public Finances (Jersey) Law 2005 states that all or any part of the amount appropriated by a head of expenditure may, with the approval of the Minister for Treasury and Resources, be used for the purposes of another head of expenditure. Delegation 1.3 of the Public Finances (Jersey) Law 2005 delegations (October 2010) delegates authority for non-contentious transfers between expenditure heads of up to £1,000,000 to the Treasurer of the States. The Chief Minister is required to accept the transfer of budgets into his Department.
Resource Implications: There are no manpower implications arising from this decision. The financial implications are as outlined above.
Action required: Once approval is gained from the Chief Minister it will then be passed onto the Treasurer for approval. Having obtained this the Head of Financial Performance Reporting and Finance Director – Corporate Group is to effect the transfers.
Signature:		Position: Senator T.A. Le Sueur, Chief Minister
Date Signed:		Date of Decision (If different from Date Signed):

Budget transfer from Treasury and Resources to Chief Minister's Department in relation to 2010 corporate savings target

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Chief Minister’s Department

Ministerial Decision Report

TRANSFER OF BUDGETS TO support 2010 CORPORATE SAVINGS TARGET IN CHIEF MINISTER’S DEPARtMENT

Purpose of Report

To effect the movement of budget from an under-spending area within the Resources Directorate in the Treasury and Resources Department to address the corporate savings target attributed to the Resources Directorate in the Chief Minister’s Department.

Background

The Resources Directorate has one Accounting Officer but ministerial accountability is split between two ministerial departments. Jersey Property Holdings is within the Treasury and Resources Department, whilst Procurement, Information Services, Human Resources and the Corporate section are in the Chief Minister’s Department. Movements of budget between ministerial departments under £1m require a Treasurer’s Decision.

A Corporate Savings target of £480k was allocated within the Resources section of the Chief Minister’s Department budget in the 2010 Annual Business plan. The stated intention was to undertake further work in 2009 and early 2010 firmly to identify the 2010 savings and allocate them to Departments.

In the 2010 Annual Business Plan, the savings target was notionally attributed to:

Human Resources – terms and conditions review - £200k

Property Holdings – improved energy efficiency - £50k

Joint Fraud Office - £230k

Main Content / Subject matter

The feasibility work undertaken on the named Corporate Savings projects showed that none of these schemes would deliver savings in 2010.

The HR review was deferred and transferred into the CSR process where it has become part of a much larger project to deliver £16m of savings in the CSR period.

The Energy Review has been undertaken but is not yet at the point of implementation.

The Joint Fraud Office feasibility work has shown firstly, that there are legal barriers to implementing the project and secondly, that the business case is not achievable as the targeted savings/additional income fall outside Departmental Cash Limits.

Alternative means of addressing the unmet savings target have been explored throughout the year, including distribution of £250k between Departments on the basis of 2010 procurement savings which was agreed by CMB in July but this has proved contentious with Departments.

The forecast outturn for Jersey Property Holdings is that it will under-spend by around £300k in 2010 and that the Resources Directorate will be able to absorb £300k of the Corporate Savings target from this source.

It is therefore proposed that to transfer £300k from the Treasury and Resources Department – Jersey Property Holdings Section to the Chief Minister’s Department - Corporate Savings section to reduce the Corporate Savings Target by £300k for 2010.

Recommendation

That the Minister approves a budget transfer of £300k from the Treasury and Resources Department to the Chief Minister’s Department.

Reason for Decision

Article 15(1)(a) of the Public Finances (Jersey) Law 2005 states that all or any part of the amount appropriated by a head of expenditure may, with the approval of the Minister for Treasury and Resources, be used for the purposes of another head of expenditure.

Delegation 1.3 (October 2010) delegates authority for non-contentious transfers between expenditure heads of up to £1,000,000 to the Treasurer of the States.

The receiving Minister is required to make a decision to accept the transfer of budgets.

Resource Implications

There are no further resource implications other than those identified above.