- 37 -in the Ministry of Finance and considered this matter. It compiled the expenditure headings for all departments and houses, a simplified and organized format, and deleted many details that were not important. It also deleted the settlement of services between departments and ministries, which significantly increased revenues and expenditures and hindered the smooth running of financial affairs. The only exceptions were some services with a commercial nature, such as railway and telegraph workers, whose value was now accounted for. Another great reform is that extraordinary expenditures, which were previously accounted for as reserves, are now included in the ordinary budget under each department as "New Works." This also includes appropriations for salaries and others, which were previously listed as special appropriations. Extraordinary revenues, such as land sales, are also now included in the general budget. "This amendment is the final step in a series of adjustments to the way the Egyptian budget has been adapted for clarity and transparency. For the first time, it appears with simplicity and regularity. All estimated government revenues and expenditures for the coming fiscal year are presented in the simple statement attached to this memorandum. The reserve no longer has an extraordinary budget but is merely a reserve fund that increases or decreases according to the surplus or deficit in the revenue and expenditure balance at the end of the year. "Until now, it was customary at the end of each year to carry over any unspent balance from appropriations for extraordinary expenditures. Departments therefore had no incentive to limit their requests to the amounts they actually spent during the year and always requested more than they needed. This practice was detrimental to financial control, as the Ministry of Finance could not accurately estimate total annual expenditures. However, including extraordinary expenditures in the budget will eliminate this flaw. Any remaining appropriations at the end of the year will be treated like all other appropriations, and appropriations will be limited to the needs of the year. Works that cannot be completed in one year will require new appropriations in the following year, thus facilitating the monitoring of these works and the annual adjustment of their estimates if necessary. "Since the appropriations from the reserve fund for extraordinary expenditures in past years greatly exceeded the requirements for these works, their exclusion from the ordinary budget led to a severe underestimation of revenues. Consequently, the net increase in the ordinary budget far exceeded the estimate. However, the new budget format requires careful estimation.