Stormont departments have been given legal approval under emergency powers to continue spending in the absence of an agreed budget from a power-sharing Executive.
Officials said the move to release funding provides "legal cover" but departments "will still not have the certainty that an agreed budget would provide".
Stormont has been in limbo since February with the DUP blocking the formation of a new devolved government in protest against Brexit's Northern Ireland Protocol.
Read more: Cross-border healthcare plans stalled by Stormont's collapse
Without a politically agreed budget, departments had been spending money authorised by MLAs in an Assembly vote in March prior to May's election.
But the level of funding authorised by that 'vote on account' – 45% of last year's budget – is now running out and departments need more cash for the remainder of the 2022-23 financial year.
In the absence of an Executive, the senior civil servant in the Department of Finance has legal authority to authorise spending and set resource limits up to 95% of the total funding available for the year.
Permanent Secretary Neil Gibson has now exercised his legal powers to release more cash.
For most departments the authorisation limit has now been set at approximately 60% of what departments were allocated in 2021-22.
The 60% limit be reviewed again in October.
The process is similar to that followed during Stormont's collapse between 2017 and 2020 after the RHI scandal.
Mr Gibson will however not have the power to distribute £435million of Treasury funds which Stormont has been unable to allocate in the absence of a power-sharing Executive.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Department of Finance confirmed the "contingency arrangements" to ensure departments can continue spending on services.
It said: "The Department of Finance (DoF) permanent secretary has today written to departments, under Section 59 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, and Section 7 of the Government Resources and Accounts Act (NI) 2001 to set out the cash and resources limits for departments.
"This is necessary as, in the absence of a Budget Act being passed for the 2022-23 year, a number of departments are reaching the limit of the cash that had been authorised by the Assembly in the Vote on Account in March. This will ensure that services can continue to be delivered.
"For most departments this new authorisation has been set at approximately 60% of departments' provision for the 2021-22 financial year. This will be reviewed at the end of October 2022.
"These contingency arrangements are no substitute for an agreed budget and while departments will have legal cover to continue to spend on delivering services, they will still not have the certainty that an agreed budget would provide."
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