(2001-07) State Budget Expenditure Nomenclature and User Guide
Summary — A 78-page MEF technical guide that replaces Haiti's 1987 expenditure classification with a modernized, nine-article nomenclature of state expenditure by nature, applied from fiscal year 2001-2002 to ease budget execution and align with the harmonized economic and functional classifications.
Key Findings
- Replaces Haiti's 1987 expenditure classification, applied from fiscal year 2001-2002, to resolve blurred boundaries between budget lines that previously required duplicate requisitions for closely related items.
- Structures the nomenclature into three levels of detail: article (voted by Parliament, first digit), paragraph (two digits), and alinéa (three digits, used for budget execution), with alinéas further divisible into four-digit lines.
- Comprises nine expenditure articles, from personnel expenditure (Article 1) through other public expenditure (Article 9), including subsidies/contributions (Article 7) and public debt amortization (Article 8).
- Disaggregates personnel expenditure (Article 1) in detail across principal remuneration, function indemnities, overtime, various premiums, and year-end bonus (boni), each broken down by staff category (career, contractual, vacataire, journalier, stagiaire).
- Is designed to harmonize with the state revenue nomenclature and facilitate reconciliation with Haiti's economic and functional expenditure classifications.
Full Description
This guide sets out the classification by nature of Haiti's public expenditure, replacing the 1987 nomenclature whose blurred boundaries between budget lines (illustrated by the guide's own example of separate requisitions historically needed for 'small materials' like pens versus office supplies like notebooks) complicated budget execution. Grounded in Article 227 of the 1987 Constitution, which requires each ministry's budget to be divided into chapters and sections and voted article by article, the nomenclature organizes expenditure into a three-level structure: the article (first digit, the level at which Parliament votes and which cannot be modified without legislative approval), the paragraph (first two digits, grouping goods and services with common characteristics), and the alinéa (first three digits, used for budget execution and requisitions), with alinéas further divided into four-digit lines for finer transparency. The nomenclature comprises nine expenditure articles: personnel expenditure, services and miscellaneous charges, purchases of consumption goods and small equipment, tangible fixed assets, intangible fixed assets, loans/advances/equity participations and placements, subsidies/quotas-parts/contributions/allocations/indemnities, public debt amortization, and other public expenditure. Article 1 (personnel expenditure) is broken down in detail across principal remuneration, function indemnities, overtime pay, various indemnities and premiums, and year-end bonuses (boni), each disaggregated by staff category (career, contractual, vacataire, journalier, stagiaire, and others).