Approve or approve of?

[Lilish]

hi!,
would you kindly tell me why in this following sentence we can't use "approve of"?

.....they approved the funding for the scheem....

[Lost_Soul]

Hi,
This is a question of meanings. Approve has 2 major meanings :
Meaning 1: to have a positive opinion of someone or something:
Example : She doesn't approve of my friends

Meaning 2: to accept, permit or officially agree to something
Example: The court approved the sale of the property

Courtesy of The dictionary

Your example falls into the second meaning of the verb approve