In this Act, unless the context otherwise indicates—

"accounting officer"

means a person mentioned in section 36;

"accounting authority"

means a body or person mentioned in section 49;

"Accounting Standards Board"

means the board established in terms of section 87;

"annual Division of Revenue Act"

means the Act of Parliament which must annually be enacted in terms of section 214(1) of the Constitution;

"constitutional institution"

means an institution listed in Schedule 1;

"department"

means a national or provincial department or a national or provincial government component;

"executive authority"

"financial year"

"financial statements"

means statements consisting of at least—

"fruitless and wasteful expenditure"

means expenditure which was made in vain and would have been avoided had reasonable care been exercised;

"generally recognised accounting practice"

means an accounting practice complying in material respects with standards issued by the Accounting Standards Board;

"irregular expenditure"

means expenditure, other than unauthorised expenditure, incurred in contravention of or that is not in accordance with a requirement of any applicable legislation, including—

"main division within a vote"

means one of the main segments into which a vote is divided and which--

"MEC for finance"

means the member of an Executive Council of a province responsible for finance in the province;

"Minister"

means the Minister of Finance;

"national department"

means a department listed in Schedule 1 to the Public Service Act, 1994 (Proclamation No. 103 of 1994), but excluding the Office of a Premier;

"national government business enterprise"

means an entity which—

"national government component"

means a national government component listed in Part A of Schedule 3 to the Public Service Act, 1994;

"national public entity"

means—

"National Treasury"

means the National Treasury established by section 5;

"overspending"

"ownership control"

in relation to an entity, means the ability to exercise any of the following powers to govern the financial and operating policies of the entity in order to obtain benefits from its activities:

"prescribe"

means prescribe by regulation or instruction in terms of section 76;

"provincial department"

means—

"provincial government business enterprise"

means an entity which—

"provincial government component"

means a provincial government component listed in Part b of Schedule 3 to the Public Service Act, 1994;

"provincial public entity"

means-

"provincial treasury"

means a treasury established in terms of section 17;

"public entity"

means a national or provincial public entity;

"Revenue Fund"

means—

"this Act"

includes any regulations and instructions in terms of section 69, 76, 85 or 91;

"trading entity"

means an entity operating within the administration of a department for the provision or sale of goods or services, and established-

"treasury"

means the National Treasury or a provincial treasury, as may be appropriate in the circumstances;

"unauthorised expenditure"

means—

"vote"

means one of the main segments into which an appropriation Act is divided and which—