Budgetary Control

The head of each department / institute has overall responsibility for budgets within their area. They are responsible for financial management of the areas or activities they control and the proper effective use of funds in accordance with the Financial regulations.  Expenditure shall only be incurred wholly, exclusively and necessarily in the performance of university duties.

Budget holder’s responsibilities are:

• The control of income and expenditure within an agreed allocation
  
  Scheme of Delegation
  
  
• Budget holders must ensure that the day to day monitoring is undertaken effectively. This includes authorising and submitting invoices for payment on a timely basis.
• To establish and maintain clear lines of responsibility within their departments / institutes for all financial matters.
• To ensure that specific budget allocations are only used for the purpose for which it has been allocated.
• Where variances have been identified, these must be investigated and where appropriate the necessary corrective action must be undertaken.
• The relevant Finance Manager for your department / institute  must be kept up to date on any potential over/underspends as soon as they become apparent.
• To meet their relevant Finance Manager at monthly budget meetings.

Scheme of delegation/financial authorities

• The head of each department / institute is responsible for purchases within their areas of responsibility. Purchasing authority may be delegated to named individuals within the department / institute. In exercising this delegated authority, the individuals authorised to incur expenditure are required to observe the purchasing policies laid down by the Purchasing section.
• The Finance Department shall maintain a register of authorised signatories and each department / institute must supply a specimen signature and limits of authority of those authorised to certify invoices for payment.
• The Finance Department must be notified immediately of any changes to the authorities to commit expenditure.
• Budget holders are not authorised to commit the University to expenditure without first reserving sufficient funds to meet the purchase cost.

Budgets

The Finance Director is responsible for preparing an overall University revenue budget and capital programme each year. This is reviewed by PSG and then Finance Committee. Allocations for departments / institutes are prepared by the Finance Director in accordance with an agreed budgetary mechanism.

Additional Funds

There are three possible options for obtaining additional funds for instances where developments have occurred during the year which now require additional resources or to cover anticipated overspends.

These are as follows –

1. From a virement - identified amounts of underspends within budgets can be used to fund additional expenditure on other budgeted activities. Virements should only take place within a budget holders own department / institute.
2. From a business case – where additional costs can be covered through additional income, the budget holder can submit a business case via the Vice Principal’s group or via the Planning round process in February/March each year.  Please see the link to the Planning Department.
3. From the College’s contingency budget – where either no virement is possible or the additional funds cannot be covered by additional income, a request can be made for additional funds from the College’s contingency budget. Requests in the first instance should be made to the Finance Director, who will assess the request.