Solomon Islands 1978 Constitution (reviewed 2018)

CHAPTER X. FINANCE

100. Consolidated Fund and Special Funds

1. All revenues or other moneys raised or received by or for the purposes of the Government (not being revenues or other moneys that are payable by or under any law into some other fund established for any specific purpose or that may, by or under any law, be retained by the authority that received them for the purpose of defraying the expenses of that authority) shall be paid into and form one Consolidated Fund.
2. Parliament may make provision for the establishment of Special Funds, which shall not form part of the Consolidated Fund.
3. The receipts, earnings and accruals of Special Funds established under this section and the balance of such funds at the close of each financial year shall not be paid into the Consolidated Fund but shall be retained for the purposes of those funds.

101. Withdrawal of money from the Consolidated Fund

1. No money shall be issued from the Consolidated Fund except upon the authority of a warrant under the hand of the Minister of Finance.
2. No warrant shall be issued by the Minister of Finance for the purpose of meeting any expenditure unless—
   1. the expenditure has been authorised for the financial year during which the issue is to take place by an Appropriation Act;
   2. the expenditure has been authorised in accordance with the provisions of Section 103 or 104 of this Constitution; or
   3. it is statutory expenditure.

102. Authorisation of expenditure

1. The Minister of Finance shall cause to be prepared and laid before Parliament before the commencement of each financial year estimates of the revenues and expenditure of the Government for that year, provided that in exceptional circumstances which shall be explained to Parliament the Minister may cause the estimates to be laid before Parliament not later than ninety days after the commencement of the financial year.
2. The heads of expenditure contained in the estimates (other than statutory expenditure) shall be included in a bill to be known as an Appropriation Bill which shall be introduced into Parliament to provide for the issue from the Consolidated Fund of the sums necessary to supply those heads and the appropriation of those sums for the purposes specified therein.
3. If in respect of any financial year it is found that the sum appropriated by the Appropriation Act for any purpose is insufficient or that a need has arisen for expenditure for a purpose for which no sum has been appropriated by that law, a supplementary estimate showing the sums required shall be included in a supplementary Appropriation Bill for appropriation.
4. If, at the close of account for any financial year, it is found that any moneys have been expended on any head in excess of the sum appropriated for that head by an Appropriation Act or for a purpose for which no money has been appropriated, the excess or the sum expended but not appropriated as the case may be shall be included in a statement of heads in excess which, together with the report of the Public Accounts Committee thereon, shall be presented to Parliament.
5. Statutory expenditure shall not be voted on by Parliament but, without further authority of Parliament, shall be paid out of the Consolidated Fund by warrant under the hand of the Minister of Finance.

103. Authorisation of expenditure in advance of appropriation

1. If the Appropriation Act in respect of any financial year has not come into operation by the beginning of that financial year, Parliament by resolution may empower the Minister of Finance to authorise the issue of moneys from the Consolidated Fund for the purpose of meeting expenditure necessary to carry on the public services at a level not exceeding the level of these services in the previous financial year, until the expiration of four months from the beginning of that financial year or the coming into operation of the Appropriation Act, whichever is the earlier.
2. Where in respect of any financial year the Minister is satisfied that an urgent and unforeseen need has arisen to authorise for any purpose issues from the Consolidated Fund for expenditure in excess of the sum appropriated for that purpose by an Appropriation Act, or for a purpose for which no sum has been so appropriated, he may, subject to the provisions of any law or regulations for the time being in force in that regard, authorise with the prior approval of the Cabinet, such issues by warrant and shall include such amount in a Supplementary Appropriation Bill for appropriation at the meeting of Parliament next following the date on which the warrant was issued:Provided that if there shall be no further meeting in the same financial year, the Bill may be deferred to any meeting held before the end of the following financial year.
3. No expenditure shall be authorised or incurred under the preceding subsection unless Parliament has specified in advance of the expenditure the maximum amount of expenditure that may be incurred under that subsection.

104. Delay in Appropriation Act owing to dissolution

Where at any time Parliament has been dissolved before any provision or any sufficient provision is made under this Chapter of this Constitution for the carrying on of the government of Solomon Islands, the Minister of Finance may issue a warrant for the payment out of the Consolidated Fund of such sums as he may consider necessary for the continuance of the public services until the expiry of a period of three months commencing with the date on which Parliament first meets after that dissolution, but a statement of the sums so authorised shall, as soon as practicable, be laid before Parliament and the aggregate sums shall be included, under the appropriate heads, in the next Appropriation Bill.

105. Public debt and borrowing

1. There shall be charged on the Consolidated Fund all debt charges for which the Government is liable.
2. For the purposes of this section debt charges include interest, sinking fund charges, the repayment or amortisation of debt, and all expenditure in connection with the raising of loans on the security of the revenue of the Government or the Consolidated Fund and the service and redemption of debt thereby created.
3. The Government shall not borrow money nor enter into a guarantee involving any financial liability except in accordance with such provisions as may be prescribed by Parliament.

106. Imposition of Taxation

No taxation shall be imposed or altered except by or under an Act of Parliament.

107. Remuneration of certain officers

1. There shall be paid to the holders of the offices to which this section applies such salary or other remuneration and such allowances as of may be prescribed by Parliament.
2. The remuneration and allowances payable to the holders of those offices are hereby charged on and shall be paid out of the Consolidated Fund.
3. The remuneration prescribed in pursuance of this section in respect of the holder of any such office and his other terms of service (other than allowances that are not taken into account in computing, under any law in that behalf, any pension payable in respect of his appointment) except as part of any alteration generally applicable to holders of offices specified in this section.
4. Where a person’s remuneration or other terms of service depend upon his option, the remuneration or terms for which he opts shall, for the purpose of the preceding subsection, be deemed to be more advantageous to him than any others for which he might have opted.
5. This section applies to the offices of Governor-General, any Judge of the High Court or the Court of Appeal, Speaker, Ombudsman, Director of Public Prosecution, Public Solicitor, Auditor-General, Commissioner of Police, Chief Electoral Officer and member of any Commission established by this Constitution.

108. Auditor-General

1. There shall be an Auditor-General whose office shall be a public office.
2. The Auditor-General shall be appointed by the Governor-General, acting in accordance with the advice of the Public Service Commission.
3. The public accounts of Solomon Islands, of all Ministries, offices, courts and authorities of the Government, of the government of Honiara City and of all provincial governments, shall be audited and reported on annually by the Auditor-General and for that purpose the Auditor-General or any person authorised by him in that behalf shall at all times be entitled to access to all books, records, returns and other documents relating to such accounts.
4. The Auditor-General shall submit his reports to the Speaker who shall cause them to be laid before Parliament; and he shall also send a copy of each report to the Minister of Finance and the Minister concerned.
5. In the exercise of his functions under this section, the Auditor-General shall not be subject to the direction or control of any other person or authority.
6. Nothing in this section shall prevent the performance by the Auditor-General of—
   1. such other functions in relation to the accounts of the Government and the accounts of other public authorities and other bodies administering public funds in Solomon Islands as may be prescribed by Parliament; or
   2. such other functions in relation to the supervision and control of expenditure from public funds in Solomon Islands as may be so prescribed.

109. Interpretation

In this Chapter of this Constitution—

• “financial year” means the twelve months ending on the 31st December in any year or on such other date as may from time to time be prescribed by Parliament;
  
  “statutory expenditure” means expenditure charged on the Consolidated Fund or on the general revenues and assets of Solomon Islands by virtue of any of the provisions of this Constitution or by virtue of any provision of any other law for the time being in force in Solomon Islands.