Academies are allowed to retain unspent funds as operational reserves.

Private equity firms are deploying hundreds of billions of dollars in unspent funds in so-called secondary buyouts.

Bonginkosi Madikizela has reacted furiously to claims that the local government have returned billions of rand in unspent funds.

MINISTER for Education Mary Coughlan has blamed delays in building projects and reduced costs for unspent funds in her department.

He said any unspent funds by the end of June had to be returned to government and the regional council.

The Government has released €1 million of unspent funds from the Department of Social Protection to charity in time for Christmas.

Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe has said that refunds of water charges will be paid for out of unspent funds in several government departments.

The plaintiffs had also faced a short, four-year window to complete the clean-up program, after which unspent funds would be returned to the companies.

It said the aid budget was set for use over a three-year period, which gave the ministry flexibility to bring forward unspent funds between years.

They are increasingly buying companies from each other, in so-called secondary buyouts, as they look to deploy hundreds of billions of dollars of unspent funds.

The local governments also faced a tight, four-year window to complete the program, after which any unspent funds would be returned to the paint companies.

With $117 billion of unspent funds available for deals, that would imply debt funds of up to $84 billion based on current estimates.