Financial Risk:
High
Score:
33/100
Asset Disposals
Q24
8/100
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 financial departments inside security agencies are in charge of asset disposals and these activities are internally and externally audited, but there is reason…
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The security agencies, Finance Ministry and auditing agencies do not publish any information about individual asset disposal deals. The Finance Ministry is the only…
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The ministries in question do not release any information about these deals. The Finance Ministry does publish an aggregate figure for the deals done…
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Q25
8/100
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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Both the military and the executive branch undermine the internal audits in general and not just the ones concerning audit disposals, auditors said (1,…
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Both the military and the executive branch undermine the independence of both the internal auditors and the external auditors, the aforementioned officials said (1,…
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Both the internal and external audit reports are never made public, auditors said (1, 2 and 3). The external bodies like the SAB, however,…
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Secret Budgets
Q26
25/100
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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More than eight percent of the budgets of security and defence agencies are spent on unknown projects, the state budget breakdowns show. In 2017/2018,…
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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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The defence committee receives the full budget for secret items, but it is generalised into vague categories and with few explanations, both a lawmaker…
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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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Legislators are provided with detailed audit reports that discuss the entirety of defence expenditure but that may be missing key details particularly ones about…
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Lawmakers often question the military and other security bodies on the findings of these reports but they almost never follow up with punitive actions,…
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Q29
50/100
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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Off-budget expenses are not permitted, according to article 141 of the constitution (1), which says that no Government agency can spend public funds without…
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Even though the aforementioned secret expenses are recorded, the information is always filed under vague categories in the budget like “buying non-current assets.” And…
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There is substantial official spending on activities, services and equipment that are entirely unspecified but there is no reason to believe that it is…
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There is no legislation that says the public has the right to access any defence information, (1, 2, 3 and 4). The country does…
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This sub-indicator is not assigned a score in the GDI. There is no legal framework according to which information is classified and protected, officials…
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The only manner in which the public can access information from the defence sector is by pressuring lawmakers, who have the right to demand…
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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 Kuwaiti military, police and KNG do not own any commercial businesses, according to current and former officials, journalists and activists (1, 2, 3,…
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A monthly aggregate figure for the business dealings of the security agencies is published every month by the Finance Ministry but the Ministry does…
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Military-owned Businesses
Q32
100/100
Are military-owned businesses subject to transparent independent scrutiny at a recognised international standard?
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There is no reason to think that the defence and security institutions own any businesses, according to activists, journalists and former and current officials…
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This sub-indicator has been marked Not Applicable because it is unlikely that military-owned businesses exist. With regards to individually-owned businesses, only a summary of…
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Illegal Private Enterprise
Q33
50/100
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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Even though the institutions do not own commercial business, there are some military and police employees, who do not control or represent these organisations,…
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The aforementioned unauthorised business activities are common in the Defence and Interior ministries, former and current officials said (1, 2, 3 and 4). These…
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Actual Military Spending
Q77
31/100
Is comprehensive data on actual spending on defence published during the budget year?
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Figures from the security agencies and other Government bodies for actual spending are published on the Finance Ministry’s website monthly but they are broken…
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Most of the budget is disclosed to the public, CSOs and the media but it does not come with a detailed breakdown of the…
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As discussed earlier, most details of actual spending are published in summary form without clear categories within a month of the actual spending decisions,…
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Variances between the published budget and actual spending are never explained (1, 2, 3 and 4).
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