Financial Reports and Expenditure Notices

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

I have been having a hard time with these tasks, and I haven't gotten any help by asking with PMs, so hopefully crowdsourcing this will help:

• Since the Tidying Up Our Finances Act, passed in 2020, it's been required for governments to submit financial reports at the start of every Cosa, when doing this budgets.  I have been able to find budget bills easily enough, but I haven't found any recent financial reports from past Ministreux dal Finançù (is that plural right?).  I know circumstances got rough there for understandable personal reasons, and so the report for the 56th didn't get done and no need to worry about it, so let's not embarrass anyone.  but: does anyone know where I can find anything like this? Searching the forum has not helped.
• I've been also trying to find notices of expenditures by past governments, which are required by law to be published before money is disbursed.  They've been labeled "disbursement notices" in the past.  I'd really like to get a handle on how much money we've ended up spending, and so could anyone link me to these?  I've only found a few, but I know I have seen others in the past.  Again, not trying to embarrass anyone, but we really need to start keeping better records, and now's a good time to start.

@Ian Plätschisch , @Miestră Schivă, UrN , or anyone else who can help, I'd love a hand with this.

What I have so far for disbursements:
https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=1529.0  (not a disbursement notice, but mention of spending)
https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=1914.0 (not a disbursement notice, but mention of spending)
https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=337.msg2028#msg2028
https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=950.msg7720#msg7720

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Right now, it's looking like there haven't been any disbursement notices for a little under two years, and there may only have ever been two of them, although sometimes the government has mentioned that it went ahead and spent money when discussing something (Ian P helped out and linked me to two such instances).  There hasn't been a financial report since maybe the 54th Cosa (https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=522.msg4067#msg4067).  And I think that's when they started coming from the government, so there wouldn't be any point to looking back on the other Witt.  I'll update Infoteca.  Speaking of which, I got immigration numbers in from the past few years! once it's back up, we'll have an amazing amount of info for everyone!

I'm not sure about this yet, so if anyone has suggestions or more info, please let me know!

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

I've been also trying to find notices of expenditures by past governments, which are required by law to be published before money is disbursed.

Which part of the law?

As to the financial reports, under El Lex C.1.5.6 you can ask the Burgermeister to provide you a Financial Report at any time. The previous Government should probably have done that at the time that the accounts finally got into Txec's hands, considering after the 54th Cosa the previous Burgermeister could simply not produce reports for us, due to his ill health. We were perhaps too trusting, and the Opposition of the time didn't remind us either. Well, never mind, I'm looking forward to the new Burgermeister's report in the upcoming Budget.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

I've been also trying to find notices of expenditures by past governments, which are required by law to be published before money is disbursed.

Which part of the law?

The budget acts have obliged each preceding government to do so.  For example:

FURTHERMORE, notwithstanding the above allocations, no funds shall be disbursed without a notice of disbursement having first been transmitted to the Ziu at least fourteen days prior to the disbursement, except that disbursements solely for the purpose of postage may be made with no less than 24 hours notice. Notices shall contain details of the purchase and a cost estimate for the purchase, or the total amount paid if seeking funds for reimbursement. Copies of receipts and/or invoices will be provided upon request to Members of the Ziu.

It's very possible I'm just confused, and that's why I'm asking for assistance.  It's been years and years since I was in the government, so maybe I don't understand the procedures.  Looking at this, it seems like the government is obliged to give notice to the Ziu, two weeks in advance to actually disbursing money -- ie, actually spending it.  Am I misunderstanding?

As to the financial reports, under El Lex C.1.5.6 you can ask the Burgermeister to provide you a Financial Report at any time. The previous Government should probably have done that at the time that the accounts finally got into Txec's hands, considering after the 54th Cosa the previous Burgermeister could simply not produce reports for us, due to his ill health. We were perhaps too trusting, and for some reason it didn't come up in the usual torrent of TERPs. Well, never mind, I'm looking forward to the new Burgermeister's report in the upcoming Budget.

Well, since the law has obliged the government to provide a financial report at the same time as a budget for years now, I have already nearly finished it.    It's the first part of the budget and financial planning bill, and it's been in the Hopper for a while now.  It's not quite complete, but I think it will have everything by the time it has to hit the Clark.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

The budget acts have obliged each preceding government to do so.

Oh, that! Yeah, there was a discussion about it in the previous Cabinet, and we worked out that it was something that Senator Plätschisch introduced in the 50th Cosa budget, and subsequent budgets from future MinFins just kept copy-pasting the text, without noticing that it actually obliged us to do something about it. I never actually noticed it (or was reminded about it) as minFin, and obviously, I forgot all about it again since then! So, up to you whether the new Government considers it something worth actually doing. It's not obliged by El Lex or the OrgLaw.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

The budget acts have obliged each preceding government to do so.

Oh, that! Yeah, there was a discussion about it in the previous Cabinet, and we worked out that it was something that Senator Plätschisch introduced in the 50th Cosa budget, and subsequent budgets from future MinFins just kept copy-pasting the text, without noticing that it actually obliged us to do something about it. I never actually noticed it (or was reminded about it) as minFin, and obviously, I forgot all about it again since then! So, up to you whether the new Government considers it something worth actually doing. It's not obliged by El Lex or the OrgLaw.

I see.  Thank you.

Yes, I thought we would keep that in, and we'd been planning on obeying the law once it was passed.

[Üc R. Tärfă]

I personally believe that part should be in the Lexh and not in the budget, otherwise the provision on spending authority removal doesn't make sense without notice on disbursements.

I'll hopper some ideas on budget - including that part - in the coming weeks.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Ok.

Anyway, I think this thread has found all of the answers to be had on this topic, and there's no reports or notices floating out there in the ether.  Thank you for all who helped figure this out.