Cap. 174 Art. 23Authorisation of expenditure before appropriation.

(1) If the Appropriation Act has not come into operation at the commencement of any financial year, the Minister may authorise the issue of moneys from the Consolidated Fund for the purpose of meeting such expenditure as he may consider necessary for carrying on the Government of Malta: Provided that moneys so authorised to be issued for any service which is of a recurrent nature shall not exceed one-third of the amount voted for that service in the Appropriation law for the preceding financial year.

(2) Any moneys authorised to be issued as provided in subarticle (1) shall not exceed the sum specified for that service in the estimates presented for the current financial year and shall be set off against the amounts respectively provided in the Appropriation Act on its coming into operation.

(3) The powers conferred on the Minister by this article shall not extend beyond the period of the first four months of any financial year or beyond the day on which the Appropriation Act for that year comes into operation, whichever is the earlier.