Financial Risk:
Very Low
Score:
88/100
Asset Disposals
Q24
100/100
How effective are controls over the disposal of assets, and is information on these disposals, and the proceeds of their sale, transparent?
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All disposal of assets by the Belgian Defence are performed or supervised by the sales department of the procurement devision of Belgian Defence (MRMP-SDV;…
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The disclosure of planned disposals depends on the type of asset. Major sales, such as weapon systems, are published on the publication websites for…
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The financial results of sales are included in the yearly federal budget of revenues (‘Middelenbegroting voor het begrotingsjaar xxxx; Budget des Voies et Moyends…
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Q25
100/100
Is independent and transparent scrutiny of asset disposals conducted by defence establishments, and are the reports of such scrutiny publicly available?
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Depending on the contract type, every sale above an amount stipulated in the Royal Decree on administrative and budget controls is subject to the…
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The material resources directorate-general is headed by the material resources director-general [1]. The director-general’s area of expertise is equipment, communication and information systems, infrastructure,…
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Audit reports of the Court of Auditors are made public online [1]. They generally include the report, a summary and a press communication and…
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Secret Budgets
Q26
0/100
What percentage of defence and security expenditure in the budget year is dedicated to spending on secret items relating to national security and the intelligence services?
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The annual budget includes the budget of “State Security” – VSSE (under the department of Justice). Furthermore, the annual budget also reports about the…
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Q27
100/100
Is the legislature (or the appropriate legislative committee or members of the legislature) given full information for the budget year on the spending of all secret items relating to national security and military intelligence?
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Committee I (‘Comité I’, ‘Comité R’) is responsible for scrutinizing the intelligence services and reports back to the Parliament. It has access to documents…
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Q28
100/100
Are audit reports of the annual accounts of the security sector (the military and intelligence services) subject to parliamentary debate?
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The Court of Auditors (Rekenhof) is reponsible for auditing the annual accounts of military and intelligence services. It distributes its annual report, including all…
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The Chamber of Representatives has the right to require documentation or testimony from the security services, or to highlight shortcomings in the audit process…
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Q29
100/100
In law, are off-budget military expenditures permitted, and if so, are they exceptional occurrences that are well-controlled? In practice, are there any off-budget military expenditures? If so, does evidence suggest this involves illicit economic activity?
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Although off-budget expenditures are not prohibited by any specific piece of legislation, the Belgian consitution does not explicitly permit them [1].
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There is no evidence of off-budget expenditures since 2015 [1, 2]. This indicator is therefore marked ‘Not Applicable’.
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There is no evidence of off-budget expenditures since 2015 [1, 2].
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Q30
75/100
Are mechanisms for accessing information from the defence sector effective?
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The Law on Freedom of Information states that all citizens have the right to request access to state documents [1]. Article 6 refers to…
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This indicator is not assigned a score in the GDI. The constitution states that, in principle, all information should be publicly available. However, the…
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The Constitution states free access to information for all citizens [1]. Most of the information is publicly available in the archives of the websites…
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Q31
100/100
Do national defence and security institutions have beneficial ownership of commercial businesses? If so, how transparent are details of the operations and finances of such businesses?
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Q32
100/100
Are military-owned businesses subject to transparent independent scrutiny at a recognised international standard?
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There is no evidence that there are military-owned businesses [1, 2]. For example, reviewing the list of arms-producing companies in Belgium, some are owned…
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There is no evidence that there are military owned businesses in Belgium, and as such this indicator is marked ‘Not Applicable’ [1].
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Illegal Private Enterprise
Q33
100/100
Is there evidence of unauthorised private enterprise by military or other defence ministry employees? If so, what is the government’s reaction to such enterprise?
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Private enterprise is, in general, not permitted for military personnel. Any member of the Belgian Defence wishing to perform a private enterprise has to…
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Unauthorised private enterprise does not occur [1]. During the process of obtaining a security accreditation, the intelligence services investigate if the person concerned performs…
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Actual Military Spending
Q77
88/100
Is comprehensive data on actual spending on defence published during the budget year?
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The data are semi-aggregated (eg. ‘sales of property’ but not which properties). There is no explanation provided beyond the heading of the subcategory which…
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The yearly budget (‘Algemene uitgavenbegroting’) fully discloses Belgian federal defence spending, in semi-aggregated form. Only some elements of intelligence are left out, as these…
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Data of actual spending is published by the audit agency [1]. Additionally, adapted budgets can be found on the website of the Federal Public…
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The ‘Adjustements of the Budget of Revenue and Expenditure of the budget year xxxx’ provides yearly explanations on variances between the estimated budget and…
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