From the 2026 budget audit
Why does one chapter keep 3 billion Ft off the books?
A chapter-level unallocated reserve inside a 3,140 billion Ft spending chapter — discretionary, in-year, allocated by administrators rather than Parliament.
Roughly 740 Ft per taxpayer — 2,954 millió Ft held as an unallocated pool, spent in-year without a legislative vote.
What you see — and what you don't
The seen: the chapter administrator's flexibility to move funds to whatever priority arises mid-year. The unseen: every wage-earner whose tax funds a pool that bypasses the appropriation vote their elected representatives already took.
Objection
"But you need contingency — unexpected costs arise in a programme this large."
Answer
Genuine contingency belongs in the central budget reserve, where its release is visible and requires an accountable decision. A chapter-level unallocated pool is not contingency — it converts a legislative appropriation into an executive one, held inside the same office that benefits from the flexibility.
Share if you think unallocated discretionary funds should go through Parliament, not around it.
The analyst's verdict
Chapter general reserve
Rationale
A chapter-level general reserve is an unallocated contingency held inside the chapter. The central budget already carries its own general and extraordinary reserves (Chapter XI / the general-reserve chapters); a second, chapter-specific unallocated pool is a discretionary fund whose allocation is decided in-year by the chapter administrator, outside the line-item appropriation the legislature votes. The classical-liberal objection is not that contingency is unnecessary — it is that contingency held as an unallocated discretionary pool inside a spending chapter converts a legislative appropriation decision into an executive one. If a genuine contingency is needed, it belongs in the central reserve, where its release is visible. Cutting it here does not reduce the state's capacity to respond to a real shock; it removes a discretionary pool and returns the allocation decision to the appropriation process.
Transition mechanism
Strike the line in the 2026 cycle. Genuine contingency need is met from the central budget reserve.
Affected groups
The chapter administrator loses in-year discretionary headroom. No external recipient relies on this line — by construction it is unallocated.
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