SADC Financial Regulations Effective 1 April 2013 Regulation  27  -­‐  Annual  Budget  Process   1. The Accounting Officer shall prepare the Annual Corporate Plan and Budget and is responsible for ensuring that Directors and Heads of Units submit quality information in the required formats by the deadlines determined by the Accounting Officer. 2. The Accounting Officer shall establish a Budget Committee comprising of Directors and Heads of Units. 3. The functions of the Committee shall be to prepare budget guidelines for each financial year and also ensure that procedures on budgeting are implemented, scrutinise budget proposals and compile budget estimates for submission to the Accounting Officer. 4. The Accounting Officer shall submit annual expenditure estimates and indicative Member State contributions to the Member States by end December to enable Member States to consider and provide for the Secretariat budget in Member States’ budget as set out in the schedules to the financial procedures. 5. The Accounting Officer shall submit the annual budget to the Council for consideration and approval through the Finance Committee three (3) months before the commencement of the financial year. 6. Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound objectives shall be set for all sectors of activity covered by the budget. 7. Achievement of those objectives shall be monitored by performance indicators for each activity and information shall be provided by the spending authorities to the budgetary authority. Such information shall be provided annually and at the latest in the documents accompanying the preliminary Annual Estimates. 8. Immediately after approval of the Annual Corporate Plan and Budget, they shall be published on the SADC website. Page 42 of 100