Financial Risk:
High
Score:
40/100
Asset Disposals
Q24
25/100
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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The Army and Air Force (Disposal of Private Property) Act,1950, outlines measures for controls over the disposal of assets of those personnel who are…
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There is little information publicly available about the process of asset disposal. A case of Army officers selling illegal Non-Service Pattern (NSP) weapons to…
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There is limited information available publicly on the proceeds of all disposals. There is some information found in CAG audit reports on asset disposals…
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Q25
83/100
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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There is independent scrutiny of asset disposals. CAG carries out audits with regularity and reports on the same; it is noted that information in…
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Neither the executive nor the military unduly influence scrutiny by the audit body regarding asset disposals. CAG is an independent body and functions autonomously…
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Audit reports are released with regularity within the prescribed timeframe. Reports are available online containing some information pertaining to asset disposals however it is…
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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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As stated in Q.12, no stand-alone comprehensive defence budget document exists in the public domain. Secret items are not listed in any documents that…
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Q27
25/100
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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There is no information publicly available regarding the depth of information provided to the Standing Committee on Defence regarding secret items related to national…
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Q28
13/100
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 Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has audit jurisdiction that encompasses all ministries [1]. Article 150 of the constitutional provisions of CAG states: “The…
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As mentioned previously, CAG audits the MoD and will have the jurisdiction to scrutinise items but sensitive/secret items are likely concealed. DACS audits the…
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Q29
17/100
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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There is no evidence suggesting that off-military expenditures are not permitted by law. A The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on the Fiscal…
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India does not have a defined and unified defence budget. As alluded to in earlier questions, the Defence Services Estimates serves as the accepted…
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It can be deduced that off-budget military expenditures could be occurring sporadically as seen in other departments, the extent to which this is a…
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Q30
75/100
Are mechanisms for accessing information from the defence sector effective?
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Under the Right To Information (RTI) Act, 2005, citizens can request and obtain government information [1]. “An Act to provide for setting out the…
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This indicator is not assigned a score in the GDI. The government operates a system of classification of information under a clear legal framework…
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According to a recent 2019 report, the MoD has one of the lowest RTI rejection rates [1]. The 2017-2018 report of the Chief Information…
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Q31
50/100
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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The Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) Department of Defence Production administers 9 Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs). They are Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Bharat Electronics…
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Details of the operations and finances of DSPUs are transparent and information is publicly available [1][2][3][4]. The overall operations and finances of the OFB…
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Military-owned Businesses
Q32
75/100
Are military-owned businesses subject to transparent independent scrutiny at a recognised international standard?
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Military-owned businesses are audited by the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India (CAG); Defence Estates Management is reported on too [1]. CAG can audit all…
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Generally, audit details are publicly available. In a slight departure from this, according to a recent Times of India article, CAG has stopped putting…
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Illegal Private Enterprise
Q33
63/100
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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As alluded to in earlier questions, there has been controversy surrounding the misuse of defence land for private enterprise [1]. As per Central Civil…
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In 2011, CAG and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had cited the unauthorised use of defence land for golf courses operated by Army Zone…
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Actual Military Spending
Q77
19/100
Is comprehensive data on actual spending on defence published during the budget year?
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In an IDSA publication, it was stated that, “While budget documents are presented annually to parliament, the data provided by them offer limited opportunity…
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Defence related expenditure data is publicly available on the Union Budget microsite [1]. Though the MoD has an Annual Reports area on its website,…
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Data on actual expenditure is available after two financial years. Under the Indian budgetary system, expenses are accounted for under the Budget Estimate (BE)…
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Explanation on variances between the published budget and actual defence spend has not been found. The Budget and Accounts section of the DoD on…
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