The MoD doesn’t publish the defence budget but an aggregated version is published in the law on budget and can be found on the Ministry of Finances (MoF) website [1]. Since 2003 the MoF publishes the budget of all the institutions, including the MoD and the State Intelligence Service (SHISH), as approved by the parliament, as well as the tables of the executed factual budget [2, 3]. However, the budget is highly aggregated in programs. The number and title of programs have varied slightly over the years but for the year 2018, there are seven programs.
­ Planning, management and administration
­ Fighting forces
­ Military education
­ Fighting support
­ Health system support
­ Social support for the military
­ Civil emergencies
SHISH budget is aggregated under one program [1].
Since 2014 the MoD has started to publish the annual military expenditures. The figures are disaggregated for all the five forces into:
– personnel,
– operations and maintenance,
– procurements expenditures,
– research and development.
More detailed information on the MoD budget can also be found in the reports on the monitoring of expenditures, in which spending within programs is broken down in less aggregated budget lines [4, 5].

The role of the parliament in the approval of the budget is defined in the law on the management of the budgetary system adopted in 2008 [1].
According to this law, the parliament has formally been involved in the process throughout the year. The macroeconomic assessment and forecasting are sent to the Assembly on the 10th of March by the government. Every July, the minister of finance sends to the Assembly the Medium Term Budgeting Document. The prime minister submits to the Assembly the annual draft budget by the 20th of October which the Assembly must vote on by the 15th of December [1].

The finance laws only list the topline figures for the defence budget, it is not broken down into functions or areas (1), (2), (3). Generally, the Open Budget Survey of 2017 scores Algeria 3 out of 100 and states that Algeria provides the public with scant budget information (4).

Based on publicly available information, the Algerian parliament receives a proposal on the general budget about three months before the beginning of the budget year. However, it is unclear if the two chambers get a more detailed account of the government’s spending other than the aggregated figures mentioned in question 12A.

According to Algeria’s constitution (Art. 138), the parliament shall adopt the finance law within 75 days at the latest from the date of its presentation (1). For the finance law for the budget year of 2018, the Council of Ministers adopted it at the end of September 2017, which was also when the Prime Minister presented the proposal at the Upper House of the Algerian parliament, the Council of the Nation (2) (3). It was discussed in the Lower House, the APN, at the end of November 2017 (4) and adopted a few days later (5). The Council of the Nation adopted the law a few days later, December 11, 2017 (6). The timeline of the legislative process suggests that all parliamentarians of both chambers receive an accurate defence budget proposal at the latest two months before the start of the budget year (January 2018). The reporting also suggests that this procedure is in accordance with the regulation based on the organization act that fixes the organization and function of the APN and the Council of Nation with the government. According to Art. 44, the parliament shall adopt the draft finance bill within 75 days of its presentation at the latest. The APN shall vote on the draft finance bill no later than 47 days from the date of its submission. The Council of the Nation adopts the voted text within a maximum period of 20 days (7). However, no information could be found on whether parliamentarians receive disaggregated figures for government spending. A news report on the Commission of Finance suggests that the commission does not receive a detailed account (8).

The full executive budget proposal is usually first circulated in paper format and at later published on the Finance Ministry’s website in the form of summary documents, organized by administrative unit, locality, economic nature, function and programs. The budget details allocations to the defence sector by branch, but only in general terms and aggregated, namely: current expenditure, expenses with staff, expenses with purchase of goods and services, subsidies, capital investments (1), (2), (3).

For example, in the summary budget by the administrative unit, the budget of the Presidency does not list the military expenditures of its Security Bureau and its branches. In 2018, the government did not answer specific questions posed by opposition members of parliament regarding the matter (1), (2).

According to the 2010 State Budget Framework Law (Art. 24) (1), the draft state budget document must be submitted to Parliament before the 31st, of October of the year preceding to which the budget applies, and Parliament must vote it until December 15th. In practice, delays reportedly occur. According to CABRI, Angola’s fiscal year is January through December (2).

The 2018 state budget document was submitted to Parliament in December of 2017, and finally voted and approved in February of 2018. This delay may be explained by the August 2017 elections, and the exceptional presidential succession – the first since 1979 (3).

However, civil society platforms and organizations, such as OPSA and ADRA, who annually issue recommendations on the state budget, have for years, asked for more timely circulation of the budget proposals, execution reports, and supporting documents.

The defence budget contains extensive and disaggregated information about your spending between different functions. The formulation of the budget in Argentina is an annual process that involves different entities. Law 24,156 establishes the mechanism for generating the budget of the national public administration, which consists of three fundamental steps: 1. Guidelines generated by the Executive Power. 2. Preparation of preliminary projects by jurisdictions and decentralised organisations. 3. Formulation of the bill that will then be submitted to Congress. The defence budget as a national jurisdiction is included in the budget of the public administration. Prepared by the Ministry of Defence, this is sent to the Budget Office of the Ministry of Finance, which presents it to Parliament on 15 September of each year. This is broken down for the 2018 case by codes and executing unit. Within the MINDEF there is, for example: Driving and Planning for Defence, Technological Development for Defence, Maintenance and Production for Defence, Training and Training; within the EMCO there is the Planning Joint Military, Peace Forces, Joint Military Health, Antarctic Logistic Support; and within each force, there are other executive units: Army (Operational Enlistment, Training and Qualification, Operational Support), Navy (Operational Enlistment, Training and Qualification, Naval Transport) and Air (Enlistment Operational, Air Transportation Development, Air Traffic Control). [1] [2] [3] All budget information is accessible by the public through the website of the Budget Office of the Ministry of Finance and since 2017 from the “open budget” platform. There you can see the defence budget, which contains extensive information broken down by object of expenditure, programmes, jurisdiction, etc. However, with respect to budgetary transparency, the index prepared in 2017 by “International Budget Partnership” shows that Argentina fell from 25th in 2015 to 46th, retreating more than 20 places in its international positioning. [4] [5] The Argentine Association of Budget and Public Financial Administration (ASAP) has a budget observatory where the budget of all jurisdictions, including those of Defence and Security, can be observed in a detailed and interactive way. [6]

The Minister of Finance is the person in charge of presenting to the Congress, in a timely manner, the draft bill of the national public administration budget, which must occur by 15 September, after which Congress must be issued the budget before 1 January of the following year, otherwise the budget of the previous year applies. In the 2016-2019 period, this has been respected, although the approval time has varied. In 2016, the approval was achieved in one month, in 2017 in two and a half months, in 2018 in three months, and the 2019 budget was approved after two months. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

The parliament approves the general budget submitted by the government.
The defence budget makes an integral part of the general budget and undergoes the same procedure as the general budget. There might be discussions at the Standing Committee level with the participation of government representatives and other individuals as designated by the prime minister. The discussion at the committees is presented at the general discussion at the sitting of the parliament [1]. The key items of the defence budget are openly accessible in each year’s approved budget, though with a general outline [2, 3]. There is information on expenditures on military R&D and social support to the families of the deceased servicemen, but other than that the information on expenditure is vague [2]. This makes it difficult or impossible to exercise oversight.

The government’s Rules of Procedure and the Law on Budgetary System requires the government to submit the budgets for the parliament’s approval at least 90 days before the fiscal year. The parliament discusses the draft budget no later than the November before the fiscal year [1].

The defence budget is passed as several Acts of Parliament, which are publicly available and provide a top-line overview of how much money is appropriated for each department, including defence [1]. Details of the budget are publicly available. A comprehensive and disaggregated breakdown of what exactly the defence budget is funding can be found in the Defence Portfolio Budget Statement [2]. Ministerial statements provide less comprehensive but more readable and readily understandable detail [3].

In Australia, the financial/budget year begins on 1 July. The Appropriation Bills, Budget Papers, and Portfolio Budget Statements are all tabled on Budget night, which has traditionally fallen on the second Tuesday in May [1]. In most years, therefore, there is about 1.5 months between the public unveiling of detailed defence budget proposals and the beginning of the budget year. In 2019, because a federal election was called for May, Budget night occurred on 2 April [2], allowing more time to scrutinise the budget and pass the Appropriations Bill, but this is not typical. The Portfolio Budget Statements contain extensive forward estimates for the coming 2 financial years, and the Portfolio Additional Estimate Statements [3] – a mid-year budget document which outlines actual spending during the financial year – contains forward estimates for the coming 3 financial years. However, these figures are not more than model-derived forecasts [4].

One of the main goals of Azerbaijan’s budgetary policy since 2006 is to “create financial support for the country’s defence capacity and security” (1), but the defence budget is not transparent. Defence spending is mainly defined under “General Defence Expenses”, followed by “Defence Forces” (including the Defence Ministry), “National Security” (State Border Service, State Security Service and Foreign Intelligence Service) “Defence and Security Studies” (Ministry of Defence and Defence Industry) and “Non-Other Expenditures” (mostly Ministry of Defence Industry). In other sections, for example, the “Science” section also provides funds for the Ministry of Defence Industry. Internal Troops, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and other law enforcement agencies are included in the section “Judicial Power, Law Enforcement and Prosecution” (2, 3).
The public is only able to get acquainted with the general information in these sections. However, the observed situation shows that today there are few questions regarding defence spending in the Azerbaijani society: What are the specific reasons for the annual increase in defence spending in the absence of the Army building strategy? What is the main argument? How much money is allocated to the material supplies of military servicemen – specifically for food, clothes and wages?
Particular attention is paid to the fact that many experts today are concerned about the lack of transparency, inefficiency and non-accountability about defence budget (4).

The Parliament of Azerbaijan receives the draft budget proposal between one to two months before the start of the budget year (1, 2). For this reason, there is not enough time for budget discussions in parliament. In general, there is no practice of making changes to the defence budget when it discussed in parliament. But over the last four to five years, the defence budget has been revised and increased in the middle of the year, in May or June. A period of unstable/low oil prices saw budget cuts, and the defence budget was no exception. The “expenditure on defence related special projects and activities” line, which had funded military procurement since its introduction in 2011, disappeared in 2016’s budget (3). The stabilization of oil prices by mid-2016 helped to restore expenditure on defence-related special projects and activities in the 2017 budget (4), as AZN 1.24 billion. However, the restoration of the budget line for defence-related special defence expenditure comes with the condition that “the division and change in [the] budget should be agreed with the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.” The changes were the result of global oil prices, and since 2016, the restoration of the special budget line for procurement came with condition that the president should approve any division and budget change on defence expenditure.

There is information on the total sum of the defence budget (25% of petroleum production), but there are no further details on the lines of the defence budget. Details are deliberately outside the realm of scrutiny as per the constitution (Article 33g). The Ministry of Finance also releases an annual budget for the Ministry of Defence. Both of these should be clarified; the total military budget is available, but there is no breakdown [1]. According to sources, there is a lack of information about a detailed or aggregate budget [2, 3, 4].

Based on information from the Majlis an-nuwab (Council of Representatives), there is no data available on the defence budget. The council receives no information about the details of the defence sector [1, 2, 3].

Bangladesh currently has a system in place for disclosing major information on defence expenditure across economic groups [1]. This expenditure includes 23 recurrent items, such as wages and salaries in cash, administrative expenses, domestic travel and transfer, food, medical supplies and training, among others. Machinery and equipment, weapons systems and material and supplies are among 10 capital expenditure items. However, information on asset disposals is not available. The expenditure information, which is organised by department/agency/institutional unit, covers past and ongoing fiscal years with revised figures, including the projected budgets for the next two fiscal years. The MoD also provides some budget information in its annual reports [2].

The annual budget is prepared by the Ministry of Finance and presented to Parliament by the end of March for approval by June 30 each year [1]. The Ministry of Defence sends consolidated budget information to the Finance Division by the end of January each year. The legislature receives the budget details when the Finance Minister presents the budget in the House and makes his speech. This is followed by a general discussion on the budget as a whole or any question of principle involved therein, without any specific discussion exclusively on the defence budget [2].

The defence budget is drawn up and approved in the Council of Ministers, which consists of the majority coalition. The approved version is pubicly available on the website of the Federal Public Service Policy and Support (‘Federale overheidsdienst Beleid en Ondersteuning’, ‘Service public fédéral Stratégie et Appui), with the most recent report concerning 2021. [1] The budget is subdivided into categories to large detail, a detailed breakdown of defence expenditures, including figures for personnel (salaries and allowances), military R&D, training, construction, administrative expenses, procurement and acquisitions, disposal of assets and maintenance. Within these categories, detailed line-item descriptions can be found [2].

The budget year starts on 1 January of each year. By 31 October, three months before the start of the new budget year, the proposal for the new budget needs to be submitted [1].

The Law on Budget of the Institution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and International Obligation of Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2018 lacks the information on expenditure, on disposal of assets, and military research and development, all the other data concerning the list of expenditures provided in box no. 4 are highly aggregated or vague. In comparison with other countries in the West Balkans that give precise spending purposes, the defence budget of Bosnia and Herzegovina has only the basic guidelines on a one-page document in the category of “current expenditures,” “current transfers and grants,” “capital grants and transfers “and” capital expenditures.” From the organization of the budget presentation, there are no visible expenditures on procurement in full scope, especially for maintenance and spare parts, which could be a potential risk of corruption [1, 2].

The legislature – the Committee for Finance and Budget of the House of Representative of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina received an accurate budget proposal for 2018 less than a month before the start of the budget year that lasts from January 1 to December 31 [1]. More precisely, on December 14, 2017, the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina submitted a budget proposal for the 2018 fiscal year to the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina [2].

The Defence budget is available on an aggregate basis. Since the BDF does not have a standalone Ministry, the BDF budget is combined under the Ministry of Defence Justice and Security [1]. The Ministry’s budget is then streamlined to the specific departments – Defence, Justice and Security [1]. According to the 2020 Budget Speech, “The Ministry of Defence, Justice and Security is allocated the second largest share at P1.94 billion or 16.14 per cent [2]. The bulk of the proposed budget will go to the Botswana Defence Force for air assets, vehicles, as well a defence and communication equipment [2]. The balance will be shared between the Botswana Police Service to cater for the construction of police stations and staff houses and the Department of Prisons and Rehabilitation Services for provision of prison infrastructure, equipment and storage facilities” [2].

The legislature receives the budget at least 2 months before the budget proposals. The budget proposal is then debated in Parliament before the final budget vote is passed on Parliament [1]. It has been noted by the Defence Web that: Botswana has listed the defence and security sector as among the five priority spending areas that will share the bulk of the P66.9 billion ($6 billion) 2018/19 budget, a top official has said [2]. The country is seeking various military hardware, from airboats to fighter jets [2]. In an expenditure estimate sheet presented at a pre-budget seminar that examined government spending priorities for the 2018/2019 financial year beginning March 2018, Finance and Economic Development Minister, Kenneth Matambo, said the security sector will receive more to fund the upgrading of equipment to enhance national security [2]. “Government, through National Development Plan 11, committed to implementing strategies to safeguard territorial integrity and sovereignty and ensure public safety and protection [2]. The nature of operations of the safety and security agencies makes it inevitable to invest in infrastructure development in order to realise the goals envisaged under the national priority area,” Matambo said [2]. Please note that the legislature receives an aggregated budget. The aggregated budget does not have specifics but generalised items. Governments deal with Budget Proposals as part of the Budget processes.

Past budgets (already executed or in execution) can be found in the Transparency Portal [1]. However, to have access to the full budgetary planning approved by the legislature, the best source is the Ministry of Economy [2]. The budget’s level of comprehensiveness is good and data is disaggregated by force, project, unit and even individual expenditures within projects and units.

The annual budgets take the form of the ‘Budget Guidelines Law’, which is elaborated by the Executive and has to be delivered to the federal budget secretary on or before the 15th of April of every year. The federal budget secretary sends the project to the legislature every 31st of August to be voted on by the lower and the higher chambers before the end of the year [1]. Between September and December, specialist committees and the plenary can discuss modifications to the proposed budget.

The defence budget is passed along with the budget of the other public institutions at the annual budget voting session. According to a 2017 survey conducted by the International Budget Partnership (IBP), Burkina Faso has not made significant progress, as it continues to publish executive budget proposals with very little budget information (1). The survey also indicates that the country does not produce a mid-year review, which decreases the availability of the budget information. The Economist of Faso, in an article titled “Budget 2018: Les prévisions sont-elle réalistes,” criticizes the 2018 defence budget as it is not itemized, presenting only resources and expenditures (2). The defence budget is not broken down when it arrived at the NA; there was not enough information in the budget (3). Furthermore, according to an interview source, in the past, the NA just allotted an amount to the defence ministry, without any regard to how many acquisitions were planned for purchase by the MoD (4).

The government and the NA have been criticized for not making budget information available to the public promptly (1). Public access to government information is difficult, and the defence budget arrives to the NA with significant delays (1), (2). Again, the breakdown of all items in the defence budget is not presented (3). No information is available about when the defence budget arrives at the NA. However, the defence budget is adopted as part of the national budget every year. Limited information on the military budget is available.

The 2018 Budget Law provides only highly aggregated figures, and does not include any breakdown across functions (i.e. personnel [salaries, allowances], military R&D, training, construction, procurement / acquisitions, maintenance of equipment, disposal of assets, and administrative expenses). The budgetary breakdown under the Ministry of Defence is as follows: Governance and Institutional Support in the Defence Subsector; Strengthening Territorial Defence; Participation in National Development Activities; and Participation in the Protection of Persons and Property [1] [2].

In addition to the budget for the Ministry of Defence, there are also funds budgeted for defence / security initiatives under the President’s budget and under the Delegation General for National Security budget; the budget breakdown for both is also highly aggregated and without detail [1].

The budget is submitted in November while the fiscal year starts in July. The budget is submitted in advance for review. Before the Minister of Defence defends the Ministry of Defence’s budget in Parliament, it is sent beforehand to Parliament for review [1]. The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association states, “30 days is the normal time between the presentation of the budget to Members and its passage by Parliament” [2].

According to the most recent International Budget Survey, “The Executive’s Budget Proposal is not provided to legislators at least two months before the start of the budget year” [3]. However, research indicates that Cameroon’s fiscal year is July 1-June 30 [4], and the budget proposal is provided to legislators by November of the previous year [5]. In fact, the 2018 budget was signed into law (after parliamentary approval) by 20 December 2017, more than 6 months before the start of the fiscal year [6].

The 2019 federal budget is publicly available and readily accessible. [1] However, most mentions of defence involve social programmes and spending to support Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) veterans during and after their transition to civilian life, and for their medical care in retirement. The budget line for support for UNIFIER in Ukraine is listed (page 191) as is REASSURANCE in support of NATO deterrence in central Europe. The 2018-19 Departmental Plan is also available online, but is not clearly linked with the federal budget. [2] Much of its contents do not address the budget or spending, but are concerned with other priorities and measures of effectiveness (for instance recruiting or ability to render assistance in a natural disaster). The budget for Operations is on page 14, for Ready Forces (military personnel) on page 19, for Defence Team (recruiting, military family support, veterans) on page 25, Future Force Design (research, planning, and exercises) on page 29, Procurement of Capabilities (to include major platforms) on page 33, Sustainable Bases and Infrastructure on page 36, and Internal Services (largely management, financial services, and civilian HR) on page 38. More detailed breakdowns of projected or actual spending for the categories in the index are generally unavailable, and are aggregated in categories that are not intuitively clear, making it difficult if not impossible to see how much is spent on each line of effort, although the trends for broad categories of spending across time are included. Forecasts are also only available in aggregated categories corresponding to the departmental plan. Quarterly financial reports are available, but are similarly based on aggregates of different line items. [3] It is difficult, or even impossible, for the lay reader or interested citizen to learn how much the Department of Department of National Defence spends on the items listed in the index. [4]

The Canadian federal government fiscal year runs from April 1 to March 31. The 2019-20 budget (including defence) was tabled in the House of Commons on March 19, 2019. [1] The 2018-19 budget was tabled February 27, 2018. [2] The 2017-18 budget was tabled March 22, 2017. [3] The 2016-17 budget was tabled March 22, 2016. [4] The legislature receives the budget less than two months before the beginning of the fiscal year.

The defence budget contains multiple components, with unequal degrees of transparency on each of them. The budget component that pertains to the General Budget Law of the Public Sector [1] is published in a relatively comprehensive way by the Budget Department of the Ministry of Finance (DIPRES) [2]. The information contains an organised account of assigned resources and expenditures across functions and agencies for the different military branches (army, navy, air force); the military health agencies; the military industry; the direction of enrollment and mobilisation; the sub-secretaries; El Estado Mayor Conjunto (EMCO); and the associated institutes and military services. However, the degree of detail among items varies. Information includes personnel, salary, but not specific items on military training and allowances. Procurement and acquisitions are specified for non-military items in all of the administrative agencies and services, but not for expenditure on investment and maintenance of military equipment, which are funded by resources from the Restricted Law of Copper. Information related to the expenditure of resources that belong to the Restricted Law of Copper is not publicly available by items and specific areas of investment [3]. Information about expenditure on items related to intelligence and national security is completely missing. Data was requested by the analyst, but it was denied according to legislation and norms that protect information that is considered of “national security and national interest” [4, 5, 6].

The fiscal year in Chile goes from January 1st to December 31st. According to the Budget Cycle in the Public Sector, every year, on September 30th, the Ministry of Finance concludes the preparation of the budget proposal, which is signed by the president and sent to the National Congress for discussion [1]. The Congress studies the proposal in a Special Commission confirmed by members of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. Congress must return the proposal on November 30th. It must be noted that, according to the Constitution (Art. 64), if Congress does not approve the budget within sixty days from its presentation, the project presented by the president is used to govern. This rule considerably weakens the negotiating power of Congress in the budgetary framework [2]. Furthermore, Congress does not have a specialised office for budget analysis that could technically analyse the proposal submitted by the executive and properly advise parliamentarians. In practice, a legislator commented that, due to the extension of the proposal and time restrictions, a commission had two days or less to review the budget proposal for the defence sector, which is declared to be insufficient for a thorough analysis [3]. This perception is consistent with budget analyses that show that the budget has undergone only very small modifications during its discussion in Congress.

Although China publishes its defence budget on an annual basis, this contains basic and highly aggregated figures, especially in relation to foreign acquisitions, military R&D, and the military component of space exploration. [1,2,3,5] In the United Nations Report on Military Expenditures, under the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs, China self-reports three categories of expenditure: personnel, training and maintenance, and equipment. [4] Chinese and English resources also report on annual increases in China’s defence budget and its contributions to UN Peacekeeping missions. [1,2,6,7]

There is no publicly available information as to how long in advance the NPC receives the annual defence budget, but it is ratified in March every year. Given that the NPC is closely controlled by the CCP and it does not have a committee on issues of defence, the time when it receives the military budget plays no role in the legislative oversight or scrutiny. [1]

The general budget of the nation is developed through six stages that make up the budget cycle, defined and regulated by Decree 4730 of 2005. [1] According to this process, the entities that make up the General Budget of the Nation must send a preliminary draft to the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit before the first week of April of each year, in which they request the resources required for the next fiscal year. From these inputs, the Executive prepares a draft budget, which is revised, adjusted, and approved by the Congress of the Republic, who finally issues the Budget Law and carries out the political monitoring and controls implementation. The budget law disaggregates the general income of public establishments, operating expenses, investment, and public debt service. However, the individual Ministries carry out the programmes for investments, disbursements, and administrative planning. The budget allocated to the Defence and Police sector for 2019 is available on the website of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, [2] as well as the information on the budget allocated to other sectors, and it is also published on the website of the Ministry of Defence, [3] with the information corresponding to the amounts allocated to the entities and sectoral strategies, and the differences between operating amounts and investment projects. In 2018, 31,325 billion pesos were allocated to the Defence and Police sector, while in 2019, 33,403 billion pesos were allocated, of which 95.8% was devoted to operating expenses and the remaining for investment. Available information shows the increase in resource allocation by sector, in a disaggregated manner, including the defence sector. The allocation of resources by sector is mediated by the Medium-Term Spending Framework, adopted from the National Council for Economic and Social Policy (CONPES) 3752 of 2013, [4] which consists of “the projection and reprioritization of expenditure” of annual budget decisions, in accordance with public policy priorities and resource restrictions. This instrument “provides a benchmark for the sectors on budget resources that they could count on over the next three years if there are no changes in the economic, political or social situation,” thus promoting more effective and efficient management. [5]

The budget for the defence sector is developed by the planning offices of the entities who have the responsibility to plan, advise, develop, consolidate, and present the draft budgets, as well as the budget and multiannual programming. These budget proposals are submitted annually during the first quarter to the Ministry of Public Finance and Public Credit, which evaluates and adjusts if necessary, and submits to the Congress of the Republic a proposal for Revenue Budget and Appropriations Law (General Budget of the Nation) for the next fiscal year within the first 10 days of each legislature, which begins on 20 July of each year. [1] For its part, the Legislature has a maximum of 3 months to approve the budget, [2] in which the allocations must be properly described and distributed among the different components of each sector.

The annual draft Budget Law shows highly aggregated figures for projected expenditure in the defence and security sector. For example, the draft Budget Law for 2018, published in October 2017, provides the planned expenditure across broad functions. Table 5 (p. 17) shows the key spending elements affecting defence as follows: Defence & security: 516.8 billion FCFA, of which 252.8 billion FCFA is projected for the Armed Forces (services des armées), 174.3 billion FCFA allocated to the police forces and 79.3 billion FCFA to the Gendarmerie Nationale (1). The draft Budget Law for 2018 also indicates the level of projected expenditure for fuel destined to the Armed Forces (13.8 billion FCFA), operational costs at the Conseil National de Sécurité (CNS) (10 billion FCFA) and a global figure of 617.9 billion FCFA across other functions. Finally, it makes mention of the LPM (p. 14) (1). “In addition, the draft budget for 2018 takes into account other priority investments, in particular, those related to the Domestic Security Programming Law (5.8 billion FCFA), the Military Programming Law (30 billion FCFA)…”

The Loi de Programmation Militaire (LPM) is part of a new approach toward defence and security policy in Côte d’Ivoire. It is the product of the national security strategy, also known as the Réforme du Secteur de Sécurité (RSS), of the Conseil National de Sécurité (CNS). However, the LPM also does not provide a detailed breakdown of projected defence expenditure. The current LPM (2016-2020) was drafted with the assistance of US-based consultancy Jefferson Waterman International. Like the draft Budget 2018, the LPM is more of a spending roadmap than an actual defence budget. The LPM 2016-2020 provides for investments of 2.254 FCFA billion from 2016-2020. 1.453 billion FCFA alone has been allocated to operations (fonctionnement) (2). “In the implementation of this reform, the government plans to invest 2,254 billion FCFA francs over the period 2016-2020, compared to 6.4 billion FCFA francs that were spent per year by the Armed Forces [La Grande Muette]. A total of 1,453.6 billion FCFA will be allocated to operational issues, up to 60%, and 800 billion for investment, up to 40% of the allocated budget.”

According to Article 112 of the 2016 Constitution, the Assemblée Nationale (NA) should receive the draft Budget Law (Loi de Finances) before the end of its regular session (1). Article 112 states, “parliament shall consider the draft budget law before the end of its ordinary session. The draft budget law must provide the revenue necessary to fully cover all the expenses…”. In general, the budget is presented two to three months before the beginning of the calendar year. For instance, the Minister of Defence presented the Military Planning Act in November 2018 (2). However, the NA is not explicitly tasked with oversight of the defence budget and much less of major arms procurements. No accurate defence budget proposal is submitted to the CSD for analysis and the question of timeliness, therefore, does not apply.

As noted by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), oversight of national defence policy is broadly exercised via the Commission Sécurité et Défense (CSD), whose composition reflects the numerical strength of the party in power (Rassemblement des Républicains, RDR). The CSD competencies include oversight over national defence, the police forces, immigration and internal conflict (2), (3). “The Security and Defence Committee has the general powers accredited to committees, i.e. of inquiry and information. The composition of the Commission reflects the numerical strength of each party in the parliament. The parliament controls national defence policy when the finance bill is being examined.”

The defence budget is transparent as it is contained in the Finance Act (Finansloven). It contains comprehensive and disaggregated information on expenditure across all functions. Comments (“anmærkninger”) on the functions’ individual accounts and subaccounts are comprehensive and contain details on posts, purpose and the like [1]. The annual reports of the Defence Command as well as of the other agencies within the Ministry of Defence also provide disaggregated information on expediture for the previous year and these are available online [2, 3].

The defence budget is contained in the Finance Act which is negotiated in Parliament each year. By law, the proposal for the Finance Act of the forthcoming year must be made to Parliament no later than four months before the beginning of the forthcoming financial year [1, 2].

The defence budget (1) is one of the most secretive items in the Egyptian state. Only a topline figure is provided in the national budget, with few breakdowns. According to the Constitution, the budget is incorporated as a single figure in the national budget (Art. 203). It is also worth noting that this figure does not constitute the whole military budget but only the part that is taken from the state treasury, as the military has its large revenue streams from its various economic activities that are even more opaque (2).

According to our sources, the Parliament receives inaccurate, or very limited information about the defence budget. There has been no incident where the Parliament debates the defence budget, and therefore, there is no available information on how accurate it could be (1), (2), (3).

The defence budget made up 2,11% of the GDP in 2018 [1]. Amounting to 528 million euros, it was the largest defence budget in Estonia’s history and expected to be even bigger in 2019.
The budget is aggregated and not explicit. [2]

The State Budget Explanatory Memorandum provides an overview of the income and expenses to the institutions that fall under the responsibility of the Defence Ministry. The budget includes an overall cost of “staff and management” in different institutions that fall under the defence budget, including institutions like the Ministry of Defence, Estonian Defence Forces, Estonian Defence Resources Agency and others. It also provides a very brief and formal explanation on why the salaries and costs have increased.

Overall, some parts of the defence budget are published and explained only in an aggregated form, e.g. “Special equipment” or “Other Operating Costs”. The explanations are offered in a written form without specific numbers. For example, bigger investments are listed, but how much each investment will exactly cost is not shown. The text includes more justifications for spending rather than specifications on what exactly it will be spent on and how much.

Under “other expenses”, there is a short explanation saying it constitutes state secret and would not be explained in this document. [3]

Estonia’s State Budget for the year 2019 [1] was drafted based on two laws: the Constitution Act and the State Budget Act, and results from the State Budget Strategy 2019-2022, the government’s program, the European Commission’s recommendations and the Ministry of Finance’s economic prognosis.
The budget year starts on 1 January and ends on 31 December. Based on the State Budget Act, [2] the Government submits the draft state budget along with the explanatory memorandum to the Riigikogu no later than three months before the beginning of the budgetary year. In 2018, the government submitted the draft state budget to the Riigikogu on 26 September, three months before the start of the year. So the legislature receives an accurate defence budget proposal between 2-4 months before the start of the next budget year. [3]

Public information available about defence expenditure in the state budget provides only an aggregated figure for the administrative branch broken down into (in the 2020 budget) operational expenses, productivity allocation and VAT expenses of the Ministry of Defence; operational expenses, defence material acquisition and the fighter acquisition project of the Defence Forces and support for the defence associations; and the administrative and equipment expenses of military crisis management (operational expenses for military crisis management are covered by the budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and, thus, provided under its administrative branch). [1] Justification for the expenditure is given in the description of the operational environment, societal effectiveness targets, gender equality, changes in the number of personnel (in man-years), and sustainable development.

Whenever major acquisition projects are prepared for or under way, the appropriation is provided in the budget separately. [1] Such major acquisition projects will have been presented also in the Government’s Defence Report to the Parliament and approved by the Parliament in advance. [2] The main documents guiding the performance management of the Defence Forces are the State Budget and the performance agreement between the Ministry of Defence and the Defence Forces. [3, 4]. The latter is currently available online for the year 2019. It provides the targets for the activities of the Defence Forces, further justifications for defence expenditure, as well as the agreed numerical goals in terms of e.g. the number of conscripts trained, refresher courses, flight hours, vessel days, and contracted soldiers. Furthermore, it provides more detailed information about the cost structure of the Defence Forces. [4]

The Ministry of Defence’s budget suggestion for the following year is provided annually (in May/June) to the Ministry of Finance, which pulls the state budget together to be presented to the Parliament in August. Then it goes through the standard Parliamentary approval process i.e. the Parliamentary reading, committee work, and an acceptance in plenary session. In this process, the Parliament and its Committees can request furher information from the Ministries which have an obligation to provide it. The final state budget modified and accepted by the Parliament usually in September/October. The budget can be amended by the Government throughout the following year, but all amendments will need to be approved by the Parliament in a process similar to the acceptance of the initial state budget. [1] The real-time budget (including cumulatively the initial budget and its amendments) is available on the State Budget website of the Minitstry of Finance. [2]

The defence budget contains comprehensive and disaggregated information on expenditure across functions (1 and 2). Information includes personnel (salaries, allowances), military R&D, training, construction, procurement/acquisitions, maintenance of equipment, disposal of assets, etc.
But some expenses are left in the dark. This is the case for the « special funds » (3): 67.2 million Euros in the Finance law 2019 that are allocated to the Prime Minister and “dedicated to the financing of various actions related to the external and internal security of the State”. The use of these special funds does not have to be accounted for.
“Secret Défense” can also be invoked to avoid disclosure of details of the use of OPEX or Intelligence services credit lines.

The legislature receives an accurate defence budget proposal 2 to 4 months before the start of the budget year. The last Finance Law Project, for 2019, was published in September 2018. [1] The Finance Law Project 2018 was published in October 2017. [2]

Detailed information on the Ministry of Defence budget can be found in Einzelplan (‘individual budget’) 14, which is part of the annual Federal Budget. This includes military R&D, training, construction, personnel expenditures, acquisitions, disposal of assets and maintenance. This information is made publicly available on both the Ministry of Defence and Federal Government websites [1,2].

There are two separate legislative committees responsible for the scrutiny of the defence budget: the Defence Committee, which can also act as an investigative Committee of Inquiry, and, within the Budget Committee, the Budget Committee for Einzelplan 14. Both of these legislative committees are provided with information separately on a regular basis. In addition, the formulation and implementation of the budget are subject to overall parliamentary control and the implementation is overseen by the Federal Audit Office.

The Defence Committee discusses the annual budget of the Ministry of Defence and provides recommendations. In addition, all defence purchases that are of ‘special importance’ or that exceed EUR 25 million must be discussed and may only go ahead if approved by the Committee, irrespective of whether or not they are included in the budget. The requirement for the establishment of a Defence Committee is laid down in the Constitution (Article 45a(1), Grundgesetz [3]). It cannot be dissolved.

The defence budget contains comprehensive and disaggregated information on expenditure across functions. The individual budgets within the Federal Budget – and therefore also the Defence Budget – are drawn up according to the criteria prescribed by law in the federal budget regulations. The individual budgets are divided into chapters and titles; the division of the titles is based on the administrative provisions associated with the grouping of the income and expenditure of the Budget by type. Detailed information is provided on military R&D (Research & Development), training, construction, personnel expenditures, acquisitions, disposal of assets, maintenance and salaries. Einzelplan 14, which is part of the annual Federal Budget, comprises all expenditure of the Ministry of Defence. The budget outlines the expenditure in detail, stating the individual purpose and the amount of the planned expenditure. This information includes personnel (salaries, allowances), military R&D, training, construction, procurement/acquisitions, maintenance of equipment, disposal of assets and administrative expenses (Ministry of Defence or other services) [1].

All necessary information can be found on the Ministry of Defence website [1]: the technical and programme expenditure of the Einzelplan is published in Chapters 1401 and 1403 to 1408:

Chapter 1401: Obligations under membership to NATO and other international institutions as well measures relating to international missions;
Chapter 1403: Command authorities and troops, social security contributions, precautionary measures and supplies for soldiers;
Chapter 1404: Defence research, development and testing;
Chapter 1405: Military procurement;
Chapter 1406: Material maintenance in the Bundeswehr;
Chapter 1407: Other operations of the Bundeswehr;
Chapter 1408: Accommodation.

These chapters on programme expenditure are followed by Chapter 1410: Other authorisations and Chapter 1411: Centrally budgeted administrative income and expenditure, as well as the two official chapters: Chapter 1412: Federal Ministry and Chapter 1413: Federal Armed Forces Administration, Universities of the Bundeswehr and military chaplaincy, etc. [1]. This information is provided to the legislature in a timely fashion.

The Ministry of Defence provides a publicly available overview of the defence budget, including comparisons against previous years, information about systematic issues and the structure of the budget, as well as line-item budget details. Overall, the German defence budget is highly transparent [1].

According to the German Freedom of Information Act, everyone ‘is entitled to official information from the authorities of the Federal Government in accordance with the provisions of this Act’. It specifies that the entitlement to access to information shall not apply ‘where disclosure of the information may have detrimental effects on (…) military and other security-critical interests of the Federal Armed Forces’. In general, ‘[a]ccess to the information should be provided within one month’. There is also an appeals process for those who consider their right to information to have been violated [2].

The legislature receives an accurate defence budget proposal between two and four months before the start of the budget year. In accordance with the decision of the Federal Cabinet, the government bill on the Federal Budget is usually sent to the German Bundestag (Parliament) and the Bundesrat (the body that represents the Federal states) for parliamentary debate in the July of a given year – and therefore even more than five months before the start of the new financial year. The Federal Budget – and thus also Einzelplan 14 – is publicly available on the website of the Federal Ministry of Finance [3]. The BMVg also publishes data on the defence budget. There is a wealth of information available to the general public, civil society organisations and the media on how the Ministry of Defence spends its budget.

The Federal Budget Act serves as a legal basis for the annual Federal Budget. Article 10a of this Act states that in very exceptional cases, budgetary decisions do not have to be disclosed to the public. However, this only concerns financial decisions relating to highly sensitive national security issues. With the adoption of the Budget Act and the budget by Parliament, the responsibility for budget implementation is transferred to the respective government department. However, the legislator has additional control powers in the area of ​​budget implementation due to certain regulations in the Budget Act and in the Federal Budget Code (BHO):

• In the area of ​​the defence budget, however, these powers of Parliament with regard to budget implementation through a ‘EUR 25 million proposal’ are even more extensive.
• In accordance with the currently valid decisions of the HHA, the BMVg has approved the permits, which have been included in the relevant chapters/titles in the annual budget, specified in the ‘Secret Explanatory Notes’ and approved by Parliament.
o all governmental agreements with commitments from EUR 25 million and
o all contracts concluded by the BMVg or its division on behalf of the Federal Republic of Germany with commitments of EUR 25 million or more
are to be submitted for approval. This also includes framework and cooperation agreements that show a total volume of more than EUR 25 million. This does not apply to contracts for the supply of fuel to the Bundeswehr [4].

There is no evidence to suggest that these regulations are not strictly upheld.

The defence budget is publicly available on the Ministry of Finance website (1), (2), (3). The budget contains comprehensive and disaggregated information on expenditures across functions. However, the allocations for procurement of armaments are not itemised or included in openly available budgets (2), (3).

Information in the defence budget is divided into three sub-programmes:

Management and administration (General Administration; Finance; Human Resource; Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation; Defence Cooperation, Research and Information Management; Veterans Affairs)
Ghana Armed Forces (Administration; Land; Naval; Air; Military Health Service, Defence Advisors),
Armed Forces Capacity Building (Military academy and training schools; Ghana armed forces command and staff college; KAIPTC)

Each of these sub-programmes provides information on their objectives, a description of their functions, a results statement (which shows the main outputs, indicators and projections used to measure the performance of the sub-programme) and a list of their operations and projects. The data on the resources allocated cover past years (2016, 2017) as well as projections for the future (2019, 2020, 2021).

With regards to procurement information, the budget shows the details of immovable and movable assets, furniture, office and ICT equipment. Spending on operational equipment (military vehicles, weapons, surveillance equipment, etc.) is also mentioned, although not in detail.

For 2018, the legislature received the budget statement on the 15th of November 2017 (1) and approved it on the 5th of December 2017 (2). Considering that the FY starts on the 1st of January, MPs received the budget proposal less than two months before the start of the budget year. Following the parliamentary approval, the Defence and Interior Committee was tasked to assess the estimates and allocations for the MOD in detail.

Although members of the PSCDI are given aspects of the defence budget on armaments when they go to the Ministry of Defence for budget hearing and document detailing the line items are immediately collected after the hearing (3), (4), (5), but the legislature has also complained about the lack of information on defence spending, notably the infrequency of intelligence briefings (which are supposed to occur yearly, detailing intelligence policy and spending) (6).

The defence budget contains comprehensive information on expenditure across functions (e.g. salaries and allowances, construction and procurement/acquisitions), in line with the appropriate codification according to the Governmental Classification of Income and Expenses but information on some functions such as the maintenance of equipment may be not be available in disaggregated form [1, 2, 3].

According to the law 4270/2014, the Minister of Finance submits to the Hellenic Parliament the draft State Budget (and therefore the Defence Budget) at least forty (40) days before the beginning of the financial year to which it refers [1].
In practice, the legislature receives an accurate defence budget proposal less than two months before the start of the budget year [2]. The budget is made public when it is submitted to the legislature [3].

The defence budget contains comprehensive and disaggregated information across several functions, such as sponsorship for sports clubs, maintenance of military cemeteries, or financial support for veterans’ organizations and sponsoring of military-related education programs in high schools. Unfortunately R&D, Procurement Plans and Salaries only totals are available. Similarly, only one total sum is provided for the development of the air force. Interestingly enough, this number is extremely low, only eight billion HUF, approximately 25 million EUR. This number is so low because major procurements, including air force-related ones, are covered not from the defence budget, but the central budget [1]. All in all, the defence budget is far from comprehensive.

The Annual Budget of Hungary is discussed and approved by the National Assembly and relevant commissions about six months ahead of the budgetary year. The 2019 budget was approved on 20 July 2018 [1]. sources agreed that the information received on the budget is generally accurate and timely [2].

No stand-alone comprehensive defence budget document exists in the public domain. A series of detailed documents in PDF and Excel format can be viewed and downloaded respectively on the Ministry of Finance’s Union Budget website pertaining to revenue, outlays and pensions [1][2][3][4]. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) budget is further explained in two documents: Detailed Demands for Grants and Defence Services Estimates [5]. An overview of service/department-wise break up of defence expenditure/estimates and allocations can be found in MoD’s Annual Reports and on its website [6][7]. Further information can be found in reports from the Standing Committee on Defence [8]. Reports from media outlets provide at times, detailed particulars [9][10].

The legislature receives an accurate defence budget proposal in a timely manner ahead of the start of the budget year. There is no evidence to suggest otherwise [1]. From 2017-18, the budget presentation is advanced by a month to February 1st. The budget is passed before the financial year starts on April 1st [2][3].

During the planning and preparation cycle of the State Budget, each ministry and agency, in this case the Ministry of Defence, prepares a Work Plan based on national development priorities as set out in the Government Work Plan (RKP). The Ministry of Defence Work Plan and Budget (RKA) contains details of policies, programmes and activities. Then, based on the Budget Ceiling that has been set, the Ministry of Defence prepares its RKA, which contains performance information – programmes, activities and performance targets – and budget details. The details of the budget are arranged according to organisational units, functions, programmes, activities, types of expenditure, cost groups and funding sources. However, the budget is not fully disaggregated. For example, in terms of weapons procurement, there is no details regarding technical specifications and number of units. The Ministry of Defence RKA, together with the RKAs of other ministries and institutions, provides the material used to prepare the State Budget Draft Law. Furthermore, after the State Budget Law – which is jointly discussed by the government and the DPR RI – is set in August, the government issues a Presidential Regulation concerning Details of the State Budget. In this regulation, the Ministry of Defence’s budget is detailed based on organisational units (Ministry of Defence, TNI Headquarters, Army Headquarters, Navy Headquarters and Air Force Headquarters), functions, sub-functions, programmes, activities and types of spending [1,2]. In terms of programmes, the Central Government Expenditure Details include the Ministry of Defence apparatus and infrastructure improvement programme, the defence technology and industry development programme, the defence equipment modernisation programme and the management and operational programmes in each TNI force. In terms of activities, the document includes the procurement of military goods and services, the production of domestic industrial defence equipment and development of defence industry software, Military Operations for War (OMP) and Military Operations Other than War (OMSP). In addition, the Central Government Expenditure Details document also sets out the details of types of expenditure – employee expenditure, goods expenditure and capital expenditure – as well as projected expenditure for each item for the next three fiscal years.

During the planning and preparation cycle of the State Budget, the government, in this case the Ministry of Defence, begins the process of preparing the Work Plan around May, when the RKP is set as a reference [1]. In June, after the Budget Ceiling is set, the Ministry of Defence begins to prepare the Ministry of Defence RKA. In the process of drafting the RKA, Commission I reviews it and is able to provide input on it. The RKAs of ministries and institutions, including the Ministry of Defence, form the basis for the preparation of the State Budget Law and the Financial Note, which are usually formally submitted to the DPR RI by the government in August. Around October or November, the DPR will approve the State Budget Draft Law [2]. Once the State Budget Draft Law is passed into law, it means that the budget and expenditure plans submitted by the government, including the Ministry of Defence, are approved by the DPR RI. Furthermore, following the issuance of a Presidential Regulation on State Budget Details and preparations for the Budget Implementation Entry List (Daftar Isian Pelaksanaan Anggaran/DIPA), the budget and programmes will start to be implemented in January of the following year.

The defence budget is presented as part of the general budget and gives aggregate figures for some recipient organisations and activities, such as the law enforcement forces, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the army, navy and airforce [1, 2, 3] For example, the Quds Force and missile program were not included in the 2018–19 defence-budget bill [1].

The legislature is likely to receive misleading or inaccurate information on proposed defence expenditures [1], as is evident from the example provided. Parts of the budget are shrouded in secrecy. Extra-budgetary funding is available to military institutions outside the official defence budget [2, 3]. Although the for 2019/2020 fiscal year, the president presented the budget proposal to the Parliament almost three months prior to the start of the fiscal year [4].

The defence budget and its allocations cover more than Iraq’s MoD, allocations are distributed among the following security actors, the CTS, PMF, MoI and MoD. The financial activities of each aren’t always transparent or widely discussed across Iraqi media. Some groups, such as the umbrella PMF organisation, draw fiscal strength from these allocations while generating income through other often illicit means. The defence budget does not offer an in-depth breakdown distribution of funds to the security actors.

General information is accessible mainly via the federal budget bill approved by parliament on March 3 of each year (1), (2), listing the sums allocated to key security agencies; MoD (allotted $600 mn), MoI ($146.3 mn), PMF ($80 mn), counter-terrorism forces ($80mn) (3). The remaining $549 million will be used for procuring arms, equipment, logistical items, and other support for Iraq’s armed forces. America’s financial support to fund the needs of Iraq’s MoD will continue in the form of borrowing (4). The budget states that Iraq intends to use $706.4 million in 2018, out of a total loan of £4,550bn. It offers no further breakdown of the value of equipment these security actors will procure in 2018. The money, as confirmed by a judicial source interviewed is disbursed by the Ministry of Finance (5).

The president and the parliamentary financial committee have been vocal in voicing their objections, and the latter is the only body that can scrutinize certain items/budgetary allocations. Only the financial committee is the legislative body able to exercise scrutiny (5). The degree of influence they have to scrutinise specific excerpts is uncertain. More detailed information on defence items and expenditures remains opaque, as this year’s budget shows. This problem is further explained in one source (6) “is in part due to the insufficient incorporation of democratic institutions into the budget process, including the legislative” (6, p. 90). Iraq, he adds, has no parliamentary budgetary office with oversight responsibilities. Little commentary is available in both Arabic and English to the budgetary practices of Iraq’s security institutions.

The federal budget and the government’s ability to deliver it on time to the legislature, without delay, is dependent on the ability power-sharing parties to work together. Matters of formulation and recommendation are delegated to the necessary committees, but calls for adjustments often result in further budgetary delays, due to political deadlock and lack of consensus. The information presented to the MoD is often superficial. This trend has shown strong signs of persistence over the past five years and is likely to persist in the absence of political agreement and consensus between political competitors within a fractured parliament.

A draft bill, according to the country’s federal budget laws, states that a draft bill cannot be submitted any later than November 11th, annually, where it can be reviewed by parliament. The deadline was not met this year (1); largely owing to the budgetary disagreement over the provision that decides KRG’s revenue allocation and the protracted security crisis. On December 3, a consultation session on the draft federal budget law for the year 2018, was convened in parliament. Majida al Tamimi, a member of Iraq’s Parliamentary Finance Committee, Majida Al Tamimi, urged members of parliament to put into writing “observations/objections’ and submit them to the committee (2). In the consultancy session, Tamimi stated “The suggestion to ask the GoI to review the budget is surprising to me … we should be the first people to read the draft”. She recommended a meeting between her committee and premier Abadi to quicken necessary proceedings. Parliamentary Speaker, Salim al Jabouri also referred to Article 128 of the Iraqi constitution; emphasising the role of specialised committees, to review the draft before it reaches parliament.

The defence budget is the highest one from all the other offices in Israel. There is a public debate on the budget in the parliament, newspapers and academy every single year. The budget of the state of Israel is publicly available, within this budget, the allocated money to the defence sector and different offices within it are specified, however only in an aggregated form. The defence budget, as others in Israel, is not comprehensive, transparent and open to the public due to security issues, there are several issues that are classified and not clear to the public (1). Additionally, Israeli Ministry of Finance provides a lot of information which is publicly available (2). In general, the budget is considered as background information and recommendations made by the minister of treasury and the members of his office, it is set out to the Israeli Knesset to be discussed and later approved, withholding changes and amendments. It discusses the budget for the 2019 year, and so it was published ahead of time, in 2018. The budget details income such as the financial assistance given to Israel by the United States. Detailed in the document are also past expenses by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and other defence-related activities as well as the general anticipation for future investments and expenditures. In the document, it is also possible to find the detail of how much money will be allocated to various fields in the IDF such as salaries to different level officers, costs of maintenance, costs of relocation of several army bases to the southern parts of the country, etc. The document also specifies the amount of money allocated to each governmental office, it includes the matter of taxing in the country, discussion of the state deficit and so on. However, it should be noted that the published budget is not entirely comprehensive. In fact, according to one assessment, the unclassified areas of the 2019 defence budget amounted to just NIS 15.3 billion of a total spend of NIS 72.9 billion, equating to just 21% of the budget. (3) The full budget details, like classified information, is open only for members of the Joint Security Committee, and not all Knesset members.

The defence budget is set for approval as part of the overall state budget. The full details, like the classified information, is open only for members of the Joint Security Committee, and not all Knesset members. Israel has a basic Law from 1975 that states that the budget will be set by law, and placed on the Knesset table no later than sixty days before the start of the fiscal year (1). The Joint Committee on the Defence Budget generally receives the proposal in a timely manner: for instance the 2019 budget ws approved by the committee in March of 2018 (2). On the website of the Minstry of Finance, the budget prosposals of the last years can be found (3).

The defence budget is agreed every year in the framework of the annual budgetary law. On the website of the Ministry of Defence it is possible to access all required information on each functions related to the defence apparatus, including information on personnel, military R&D, training, construction, procurement/acquisitions, maintenance of equipment, disposal of assets, and administrative expenses.

The budget is presented yearly through the Ministry’s estimates for the fiscal year [1]. Moreover, the Ministry presents to the Parliament the Pluriannual Programmatic Document (Documento Programmatico Pluriennale, DPP) that also specifies expenditures for each function and sectors composing the defence budget [2]. This way, both the short and medium term budgets are presented. A further component of the defence budget is represented by the annual law on the approval and extention of international missions of the armed forces, which is updated every year and includes detailed financial allocations per mission [3].

According to Law 244/2012 art. 4 [1], the Ministry of Defence has to present to Parliament its PPD as well as the yearly update for the estimate of the fiscal year by the 30 of April of each year. Nonetheless, delays occurred especially in 2020, when, as of mid-september these documents have not been presented [2] [3] [4]. Such important delays are even more relevant if one considers that the state’s fiscal year in Italy coincides with the calendar one.

Different versions of the Japanese budget are released at different stages of the budget compilation process, but almost every item of expenditure is listed in the most comprehensive version. A booklet entitled “Defence Programs and Budget of Japan” [1] is published to share the contents and explanations of the budget with the public. The “Detailed specification of general account budget under MOD jurisdiction” is a more comprehensive and disaggregated version. [2] The version for 2019 is 90 pages long and divided into one section for the Ministry of Defence (MOD), a second for the Regional Bureaus of the Ministry of Defence and a third for the Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Agency (ATLA). The sections are further divided into subsections. Each subsection for a service branch or similar unit has figures for the personnel expenses, salaries (various combinations with the character (給) and allowances (手当), training (primarily 訓練 or演習), construction (工事), acquisitions (購入) and maintenance of equipment (修理). Administrative expenses for the different units are also given, with a major portion at the beginning of the budget under the MOD. All military R&D (研究開発) is found under ATLA. Japan’s spending for stationing US forces contains many items. “Defence Programs and Budget of Japan” gives an overview of such costs. [3] A more detailed list of costs is found in a table in Defence of Japan 2019, in Japanese, [4] and in English. [5] Japan covered three categories of expenditure for the US Forces in Japan over the Defence Budget for FY 2019. The first was ¥388.8 billion for labor, housing and related costs of stationing US Forces in Japan. [5] Since 1978, Japan has covered more expenses than stipulated under the original agreement with the US, according to which Japan would provide facilities and the US would shoulder personnel costs. [6] The second category was ¥25.6 billion to pay for implementing plans to return facilities and areas in Okinawa Prefecture that the USFJ owned in 1996, determined by the Special Action Committee on Okinawa (SACO), which had representatives from the US and Japan. [5] Since 1997, Japan has paid its part of such costs. [6] The third was ¥167.9 billion for costs contributing to the realignment of US forces in Japan. [5] Japan has paid such costs since 2007. [6] There are twenty-six items in the table in Defence of Japan 2019. Twenty-four of these are sums of various items in the “Detailed specification of general account budget under MOD jurisdiction.” A list of the figures of which items have been added together, and the legal basis for each item of spending, is found in an appendix table to a report made by the Board of Audit in 2018. [7] The “Detailed specification …FY 2019” gives a further breakdown of some expenses. The budget has a further breakdown of which annual budgets funds were appropriated for the expenditure in (and subsequently carried over to FY 2019). It also gives figures for spending under the item during FY 2018 and FY 2019 and planned spending during FY 2020. [7] The cost of the much debated work to relocate an airfield at Futenma Air Base on Okinawa Island to a different site on the same island was included in “SACO expenses” until and including the general account budget for FY 2006 and thereafter in “expenses for relocating US forces.” [2] The table in Defence of Japan 2019 also includes two expenses not borne by the Ministry of Defence: the Base Grant (see Q29A) and income forfeited by using non-administrative government property for US bases. The latter is calculated using average land rental fees in the vicinity of the bases. [8] Disposal of assets is not found in the budget for expenditures, but figures can be found, as informed by a Ministry of Finance Official, in the “Settlement of accounts for the general account income and expenditures.” [9] The list of incomes from the Ministry of Defence includes the items sales of government assets and sales of equipment. [10] The budgets for the DIH and the IGO are not found in the “Detailed specification …,” but they are found in an “Explanation of the settlement of accounts.” [11] The tasks of the Defence Intelligence Headquarters and the cost of the satellites that they use are found in “Defence Programs and Budget of Japan,” however. [1]

The budget proposal that the Finance Minister presents to the National Diet for legislative scrutiny will have the government’s support and will only be revised under special circumstances. In recent years, budget preparation has followed the same regular pattern, occasionally with minor delays. In June or July, the Prime Minister will propose the size of the budget and what items to prioritise, based on the recommendations of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy (CEFP), [1] a policy committee that advises the Prime Minister. [2] The MOD [3] and other government agencies [4] will make their budgetary requests to the Ministry of Finance at the end of August. [5] Thereafter, examiners in the Ministry of Finance will propose to remove items that they consider unnecessary, and the Ministry of Finance (MOF) will complete its budget proposal by mid-December. The completed budget proposal will be assessed by the CEFP. [1] In addition, each of the ruling parties LDP and Komeito will assess the budget proposal in its Policy Affairs Research Committee. [6] Agencies may try to restore items that were cancelled by MOF examiners by approaching zoku politicians from the ruling parties, specialised in the field administered by the agency. An item may be reinstated if there is support for it in the ruling parties, [1] and leaders of the two parties will meet to make decisions on which policies to prioritise. Thereafter, the budget proposal will be approved by the Cabinet. [6] The budget proposal for the fiscal year beginning on April 1, 2019 was approved by the Cabinet on December 21, 2018 and made public. [7] On January 28, 2019, Finance Minister Aso held the Financial Policy Speech at a plenary session of both houses of the Diet, [8] and the budget proposal was formally presented to both houses of the Diet on the same day (see Q2D). Only the budget proposal for FY 2015 was substantially delayed. Cabinet adopted the budget proposal for that year on January 14, 2015. Because of the delay, the government proposed a temporary budget for the beginning of the fiscal year that started on April 1, 2015, which the Diet adopted on March 27, 2015. The government’s general account budget proposal for FY 2015 was passed by the Diet on April 9, 2015. [9] Two causes of the delay were that an election to the Lower House had been held in December 2014 and that criticism by opposition parties had led to the resignation of a Cabinet Minister. [10]

General defence budgets are available to the public in Jordan [1] through the General Budget Department’s official webpage. However, available documents do not include information on procurement/acquisition, disposal of assets, or maintenance of equipment budgets. The budget is completely missing areas mentioned in score 4. In addition to that, the defence budget receives little, if any, scrutiny from the legislature, and instead legislature recommendations are always to increase the defence budget [2,3]. It is also important to reiterate that the lack of an effectual Ministry of Defence makes it difficult for any accountability processes [4].

The general budget is presented to the legislature. In 2018, the legislature was able to approve the Government’s annual budget on the first day of the year [1, 2], which is an indicator of the budget being presented to the Parliament around two months before the start of the budget year. The 2018 budget also became available online on March 21, 2018, almost three months after its approval by the Parliament [3,4].

The defence budget for the Ministry of Defence (MOD) is published publicly by the National Treasury. Review of published budgets indicates that the budget consistently contains both approved expenditure for the previous year, expected estimates of the current year, as well as projected estimates for the upcoming two years. [1] The budget contains fairly comprehensive information on expenditure across various areas areas and functions, including but not limited to salaries, allowances, pensions for staff at Defence Head Quarters (DHQ), administration expenses, assets, training, operations as well as acquisitions.

In addition, the information is also classified according to expenditure by various defence sectors including Kenya Defence Forces, Kenya Space Agency, Kenya Navy, Kenya Airforce as well as various divisions, such as Aids Control Unit, Defence Directorate of Policy and Planning programme activities like Management of Ethics and Integrity Programme, and securitization of Borders, among others. However, it is worth noting that expenditure on some budget lines is aggregated and vague. For example, apart from Salaries and allowances, two of the major budget lines with high expenditure costs and that have consistently risen in the period under review include: Item 2211000 – Specialised Materials and Supplies as well as item 2211300 – other operating Expenses. [2]

The legislature receives an accurate defence budget proposal between 2-4 months before the start of the budget year. The Kenyan Constitution requires the National Treasury to publish National Budget estimates and an annual Appropriation Bill at least two months before the end of each financial year in (June), and submits this to the National Assembly estimates of government expenditure, including ministries such as Ministry of Defence (MOD), for the next financial year. The National Treasury publishes the ministerial budgets from all ministries including MOD, and parliament receives budget proposals consisently and on time by April. For instance, estimates of revenue for the financial year 2020/2021 were submitted to the National Assembly on 29th of April 2020. [1]

In the previous year, 2019/2020, the proposals were published on 30th April 2019. [2] A review of parliamentary reports specifically the Budget and Appropriations Committee indicate that parliament and responsible departmental committees receive reports in advance according to Article 221(4) of the Constitution. For instance, in a report of the proposed budget estimates for the financial year 2019/2020, the Budget and Appropriations Committee received the budget estimates on 30th April 2019, two months before the start of the financial year in July 2019, and held twelve meetings with the chairpersons of all the departmental committees including defence and foreign relations committee that oversees MOD’s budget.

The committee also received submissions on the budgets from various ministries and agencies. Apart from the expenditure budget lines indicated above, there is limited evidence to indicate both the defence and foreign relations committee receive detailed information from the MOD. For example, in the report, no comments were made on the entire defence budget by the committee.

Information on the annual budgets of the Ministry of Defence and the Kosovo Security Forces (KSF) is made publicly available, following the Law No. 06/L-133 on the Budget Appropriations for the Budget of the Republic of Kosovo for Year 2019 [1]. This law contains budget data on personnel salaries, goods and services, utilities expenditures, subsidies and transfers, and capital expenditures [2], albeit superficially. This Law outlines the allocation of budgets for the Ministry of Defence and the KSF from the following sources: Government Grants, Financing by Borrowing, Revenues from the Privatisation Agency of Kosovo, and other sources [2]. However, the Law does not provide information on training, construction, specific procurement and acquisitions, maintenance of equipment, and disposal of assets for the KSF and the Ministry of Defence.

According to the Law No. 03/L-048 on Public Financial Management and Accountability, following the Kosovo Government’s approval of state budget, the Kosovo Government itself submits these core budget documents to the Kosovo Assembly no later than 31 October each fiscal year [1]. Kosovo’s state budget is therefore submitted to the Assembly two months before the start of the fiscal year. Furthermore, the law stipulates that the Minister of Finance should be given adequate notice of the proposed state budget and can participate in any hearing held by the Assembly’s Central Budget Force [1]. When considering Kosovo’s defence budget, the Assembly’s current Rules of Procedure states that the Kosovo Security Forces’ budget is reviewed by a relevant Assembly Committee prior to be presented to the Assembly for adoption [2]. However, there is no detailed information regarding the timeline for this process.

According to the government reviewer, the defense budget is prepared in detail for each expenditure which is comprehensive, transparent and in accordance with the Classification System on the basis of Available Petty Cash, according to MTEF and budget circulation.

The defence budget is released to the public and it is available on the Finance Ministry’s website (1). However, it is highly aggregated and vague in details.

The ministry annually releases the budget of the defence and security sector’s expenses, which is relatively comprehensive and it details expenditure across a number of functions like “salaries; commodities and services; social benefits and capital expenditure,” along with a vague function described as “expenses and other transaction.” This applies to the Kuwaiti military, police and KNG.

These breakdowns do not include detailed information on training, procurement of arms, construction or military research and development, for example.

By the end of the year, the ministry releases a final report detailing the changes that they have made to the budget after with parliamentary approval (2).

The general budget for all state agencies, and not just the defence and security sector, 2018/2019 was 10 days late this year (1), but a lawmaker, officials and journalists said that the budget is usually presented at least two months before the budget year begins (2, 3, 4 and 5).

The sources said the budget is usually accurate and sent to Parliament on time but sometimes it contains vague terms or missing information, which they need to request from the concerned agency. The budget is usually vague, which means the accuracy cannot be fully determined.

This year’s delay was caused by the finance ministry and the petrol ministry, officials say, and they are usually the ones who are always blamed for delays.

The general defence budget, including what is allocated to the defence sector, is openly available and gives a full picture of the key categories of defence expenditure – including personnel (salaries, allowances), military R&D, training, construction, procurement/acquisitions, maintenance of equipment, disposal of assets, and administrative expenses (e.g. the state budget for 2018,2019,2020 [1,4]). The Ministry of Defence publishes infographics to explain the categories and priorities of the defence budget (e.g. for 2018 [2] and for 2019 [5]) and a more detailed outline of the budget [3,6].

The parliament receives an accurate defence budget proposal in sufficient time before the next financial year begins (e.g. in 2017, the Cabinet of Ministers submitted the draft to the Parliament on October 11, 2017 [1]). Parliament then scrutinizes the budget in two readings. [2] For the most part, “sufficient time before” refers to a period of time which permits a reasonable discussion on the state budget. The state budget is usually decided upon in the three final months of each calendary year [3,4,5].

The Ministry of Finance publishes the defence budget as part of the state budget on its website. In 2018, Lebanon passed its first state budget since 2005. The Ministry of Finance has a summary of the state budget under the “Citizen Budget” which has the top-line figure of the defence budget (1). The state budget includes data on the expected expenditures for the Ministry of Defence, including personnel (salaries, allowances), training, construction, maintenance of equipment, and administrative expenses (Ministry of Defence or other services) (2). Almost 80% of the LAF’s budget is allocated to pensions, salaries, bonuses, social security funds, etc. While around 20% of the budget is allocated to capital expenditures tied to infrastructure & LAF motor pool (3). The LAF is aid-dependent so equipment, ammunition, the sustainability of weapons, training, etc are given by foreign countries (4).

The Parliament receives information on proposed state budget after the government approves it. In theory, the MoF should issue a circular in April to government institutions and ministries requesting their proposed spending and revenues for the upcoming year. By May, all the concerned entities should have sent their requests to the MoF. The MoF drafts the budget and sends it to the CoM for approval, which should happen by October. The approved proposed budget then goes to the parliamentary committees to be studied and revised. The proposed budget should be voted on by November. According to the PAL, the parliament has to hold an exceptional parliamentary session to vote by the end of January (1). In reality, this does not happen in a timely manner. For example, the state budget for 2017 and 2018 was passed within 6 months difference (2). Furthermore, Lebanon’s budget for 2019, was approved by the CoM in May 2019 (3). On April 27, 2019, the minister of defence discussed the defence budget with the LAF officers before discussing it at the Council of Ministers (4).

The defence budget is publicly available in PDF format on the Ministry of Defence website [1]. The last published set of financial statements dates from 2018 [2]. These contain information on personnel (general amount spent on salaries, training, and business trips), maintenance, office supplies, and utilities. It is not directly indicated that there is money spent on military R&D; however, the set of financial statements refers to ‘other expenses’ which contain fees relating to international organisations, scholarships for students and other costs. These statements also show the source of these finances, including how much money comes from the state budget, from the budget of European Union, etc.
More recent information on budget performance during the first quarter of 2018 became available after this assessment was finalised, and is therefore not included in this analysis.

According to the Constitution (Article 129), ‘the budget year starts on the 1st of January and ends on the 31st of December’. The Government ‘draws up a draft State Budget and presents it to the Seimas (unicameral Parliament) no later than 75 days before the end of the budget year’ (Article 130) [1]. The budget for the past few years was presented to Seimas on time, as required by the Constitution [2].

The defence budget is available online via the Ministry of Finance’s website. [1] However, it is a general budget outlining related functions without a comprehensive expenditure breakdown across functions. Several documents on the Ministry of Defence’s spending and finance management are released each year. The Ministry of Defence’s annual spending is outlined in the National Budget Estimate by the Ministry of Finance. It is worth noting that all ministries are now required to submit a budget request which shows how much is needed per line item. This is a new initiative by the current government. However, there is no indication that this will be made public or disclosed to Parliament; it will likely remain an internal requirement, i.e. the Ministry of Defence will submit a line-itemised budget requirement to the Ministry of Finance. [2] [3] [4]

Once tabled, the annual National Budget Estimate is up for discussion for a maximum of 20 days in the Parliament. [1] The budget proposals are general and lack transparency as most of the defence spending controls are made internally within the Ministry.

The 2018 budget contains a superficial breakdown of defence spending into various categories: personnel, materials and functioning, travel and operations, communications and energy, other expenses, equipment and investment, transfers and subventions. However, substantial amounts of defence spending are not detailed in the budget as many things can be financed through the numerous sources of off-budget defence income, as outlined in the SIPRI report from 2006. The report also underlines that the official budget of the armed and security forces (as it appears in the annual Finance Act) is only a fraction of the economic resources dedicated to military activities in Mali. The bulk of the country’s military equipment is supplied by foreign partners, especially France.

The Malian fiscal year runs from January to December. The 2018 budget, which provides a basic breakdown of proposed annual defence spending, was published by the government in September 2017.² The National Assembly began considering the budget during the first week of October and approved it in December 2017.³ ⁴ The timely publication of the budget is not a one-off: in 2016, the government also published the forthcoming annual budget in September, more than two months before the start of the new fiscal year.¹

The Federation’s Expenditure Budget details the defence budget [1] which contains information such as: information related to personnel (salaries and assignments), research, acquisitions, and administrative expenses. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] There is no reference to the disposal of assets.

This information is available to the public through the official website of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit and can be analyzed in Volume III Administrative Branches. You can also find the expenditure budgets for previous years.

According to Article 39 of the National Budget and Financial Responsibility Law, the fiscal year is the same as the calender year, starting on 1 January. [1]

Pursuant to the law, the expenditure spending programming stage concludes no later than 8 September of each year, when the Executive Branch sends the economic package to Congress for discussion, modification, and approval. This package includes the budget for defence, through SEDENA and SEMAR. [2] [3] This is available to the public through the official website of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit and can be analyzed in Volume III Administrative Branches. [4]

SEDENA and SEMAR, contribute by preparing their respective preliminary draft budgets, taking into account the objectives of their institutional programs. [5]

In practice, the institutions of the federal public administration meet the deadlines stipulated by law.

The defence budget provides total amounts dedicated for personnel (salaries, allowances), training, construction, procurement/acquisitions, maintenance of equipment, and administrative expenses, while information related to military R&D and disposal of assets is missing. [1]

The legislature receives an accurate defence budget proposal less than two months before the start of the budget year. The Government usually provides the Parliament with a Proposal for the Budget about one month before the start of the budget year. For the ongoing year, the budget proposal was submitted on December 7, 2018, [1] and for previous years on November 15, [2] December 21, [3] November 16. [4]

According to page 1538 of the 2018 Budget Law, the defence budget is divided into two categories: ‘staff’ and ‘equipment and various spendings’ (1).

Media coverage of the 2018 Budget Law does not cover in detail the armed forces budget (2)(3)(4)(5). Within these categories there is no detailed or comprehensive information available.

This indicator has not been assigned a score due to insufficient information or evidence.

Based on the lack of information, this sub-indicator is marked non-applicable. No evidence was found suggesting that members of the legislature in general or members of the commission on Foreign Affairs, National Defence, Islamic Affairs and Moroccan Residents Abroad received the budget plan. (1)

No evidence was found of a debate around the issue of defence budget among the various debate and examinations undertaken by the legislature (2). No information was found regarding the timing of the legislature receiving the Budget Law. However, no evidence was found that the legislature either receives no information, or it receives misleading or inaccurate information on proposed defence expenditures.

Major-General Myint New, Deputy Minister of Defence, explained the defence expenditure for the 2019-2020 fiscal year but did not offer any details regarding specific equipment that the military plans to purchase [1]. MP Daw Phyu Phyu Thin criticised the fact that there were no clear or detailed facts concerning defence spending and she pointed out that defence budget spending needed to be presented transparently [2]. Dr. Naing Swe Oo, the founder of the research team, describes the new modern fighter jet as follows: ‘The JF-17 is a multifaceted fighter. As we know, it is completely new. It is mainly used in the Pakistan Air Force. It has Block 1, 2 and 3. Its value ranges from $28 million to $32 million although we don’t know the exact block that they buy here. As the fourth generation, it can be said that they are the modern fighters’ [3]. So, there is no published information on specific budget spending for the defence sector from Parliament or the Ministry of Defence and most of the explanations provided by the Ministry of Defence before Parliament are vague.

According to the Constitution, the Union Government shall draft the Union Budget Law based on the annual Union budget, after coordinating with the Financial Commission, and submit it for approval to Parliament for each fiscal year [1]. The Union Government always submits the budget account and Union Budget Law (draft) to Parliament before January 15. The Myanmar fiscal year runs from April 1 to March 31 [2]. Major-General Myint New, Deputy Minister of Defence, explained the defence expenditure for the 2019-2020 fiscal year but did not offer any details regarding specific equipment that the military plans to purchase [3]. Parliament receives the budget account and Union Budget Law (draft) three months before the start of the fiscal year but the defence spending does not include specific information.

The defence budget contains a somewhat comprehensive overview of expenditures across the Ministry of Defence. It is completely public and relatively transparent. The 2020 Defence Budget is broken down according to personnel expenses (divided into the Navy, Army, Air Force and Military Police sections), acquisitions (listed as ‘investments’), maintenance of equipment (listed as ‘conservation’ and divided into the Navy, Army, Air Force and Military Police sections) and administrative expenses (listed as ‘core department’) [1]. Budgets are not broken down further when it comes to finer personnel categories (such as salaries and allowances), military R&D, training, construction or disposal of assets. There is unclear delineation of resources for these categories, though the information is provided in an aggregated form.

The House of Representatives receives an accurate defence budget proposal on Budget Day, which is on the third Tuesday of September, giving the legislature around 3.5 months before the start of the budget year to debate and amend the contents [1].

Vote Defence Force and Vote Defence include key items of expenditure. Financial details are included in Vote Main Estimates and Vote Supplementary Estimates. Current and previous years’ Votes are freely available from The Treasury website [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. Each year the Treasury also releases Budget information on the Defence Portfolio which contain relevant Cabinet Minutes [10]. Disaggregated information is not available for all the elements listed; however, these are provided in the NZDF Annual Report’s Financial Statements, and importantly, to the FADTC in the form of responses to written questions as part of that Committee’s oversight function over the Estimates for Vote Defence Force. [11, 12] Military R&D does not appear in disaggregated form. Personnel costs are not delineated into salaries and allowances, though there are Employee entitlements. [13] Training and travel expenses are included in the Annual Report, however at a figure of $88.6 million this does not appear to be all-inclusive. [14]

In New Zealand, the government fiscal and budget year begins on 1 July and ends on 30 June next calendar year. [1]
The budget process in New Zealand starts with a ‘strategic phase’. The government’s Budget Policy Statement (BPS) is required to be tabled in Parliament by no later than 31 March. [2] The detailed budget, includuing the defence part, is customarily delivered in May, with select committee hearings on the estimates in June before the start of the relevant financial year. The Budget Policy Statement 2021 was released on 9 February 2021 and Budget 2021 on 20 May 2021. [3]

The Nigerien defence budget is published on an annual basis as part of the financial law available in the Official Journal, in a printed and online version. This shows key items of expenditure. According to the 2018 financial law provisions, the budget for the Ministry of Defence is divided into three sub-categories: control and administration of national defence policy (54 170 333 550, FCFA), securing national territory (72 589 000 000 FCFA) and peace consolidation (861 200 000 FCFA) (1). Relevant categories include such different sub-sections as recruitment, salaries, training, health services, military infrastructure, maintenance of equipment, armament and munitions acquisitions. The sub-sections provide for different lines on more detailed information regarding such details as fuel or even nature of important acquisitions (such as helicopters and armoured car) (2).  Therefore, the defence budget contains comprehensive information on expenses across functions, but some information, regarding expenditures by intelligence services, is not detailed and is often just marked as “other services and acquisitions”.
It should also be noted that some services related to security and defence respond directly to the Presidency and therefore do not make part of the “defence budget”. These fall under the sub-category “security of the President of the Republic”, and include: Presidential Guard, the CNESS, Chief of the Military Staff of the President of the Republic, Directorate General of Documentation and External Security of the State. The sub-category “administration control” include “Office of the Inspector-General of the Army and of the National Gendarmerie”, which also does not make part of the Ministry of Defence’s budget (2).
Therefore, the defence budget is transparent by showing key items of expenditure, but it lacks specific details on some budget lines, including the intelligence services.

The National Assembly is responsible for analysing the national budget and provides government oversight when it comes to drafting budgetary legislation, which is passed annually. The World Bank describes the procedure of the budget discussion as follows (1): The minister of finance submits a draft in the plenary session; in the week that follows, he submits the draft to the Finance and Budget Committee (CFB) of the NA over a period of about five or six hours and expands the draft to include the scrutiny of revenue, expenditures and public policies. The seven standing general committees, including the Security and Defence Committee, review the draft over three weeks and may suggest proposals for amendments. The CFB scrutinises the portion of the draft law that pertains to the Ministry of Finance. The committees may take the testimony of experts if necessary. The Finance and Budget Committee analyses the draft budget with the minister of finance, his associates and the director-general of the Ministry. The CFB then deliberates in plenary session, conducts the arbitrage and drafts a summary document that comprises of the report of the Finance and Budget Committee. The Chair of the Finance and Budget Committee submits the report to the minister of finance. The plenary session debate lasts three days. The session is public and broadcast over the radio. Following the initial discussion, amendments are then debated. However, the final bill is often very similar to the original draft submitted by the government.
According to the World Bank Report analysis, the National Assembly has enough time to scrutinise the budget: “if the draft is not submitted at the beginning of the budget session so that parliament would have two months to scrutinise it, parliament nonetheless has two months to scrutinise it after the date it is submitted; and, as of the beginning of the next fiscal year, the government may commit expenditures and collect revenue on a provisional or estimated basis” (1) .
Nevertheless, in spite of these provisions, according to the Open Budget Survey 2017, in general, the legislature provides limited oversight during the planning stage of the budget cycle and only weak oversight during the implementation stage of the budget cycle (3).

The defence budget is not comprehensive. The National Planning Office recently clarified that there was no padding – inclusion of an extraneous or unexplained item in the 2018 budget (1), (2). However, the Senate argued that expenditure items were inflated, duplicated and unexplained. In response the National Planning Office explained that the National Intelligence Agency operation budget line item referred to as “Fumigation and other services” was meant to conceal the true nature of operations which required security and or confidentiality (1), (2). The headline figures in the budget are not comprehensive as they do not cover purchases from Special Purpose Intervention Funds. The comprehensiveness of the budget is also questionable based on bogus expenditure items which are added to increase the funds required by MDAs (1), (2), (3).

Although the legislature receives a proposal for the Ministry of Defence, Defence Headquarters, and the military services (1), it does not receive budget proposals on time; and some ad hoc defence expenditures are made without appropriate legislative consultation or supplementary appropriation (2). Furthermore, major defence expenditure such as the acquisition of weapon systems is often not contained in the budget which renders the information inaccurate (2).

The defence budget is transparent and contains all information on expenditures across sectors: expenses directed towards administration, procurement, equipment, personnel, logistics and training are all included [1]. The list is comprehensive, but is not broken down and the expenses which are explicitly disclosed are mainly general expenses. This is corrected to some extent through the Ministry of Defence public procurement plan, at least regarding the planned acquisition of equipment [2] and the Ministry’s balance sheet, which annually provides full details of the defence budget and expenses for circulation [3].

Parliament, regularly receives overall budget proposal, including for defence provisions. The Law on Budgets stipulates that the Ministry of Finance will submit the draft budget to the Government no later than November 1. The Government submits the draft budget to the Parliament by November 15th at the latest. Also, the Assembly cannot review the draft budget earlier than 20 days from the date of delivery. [6]
The 2017 budget was reviewed less than 2 months before its final adoption and publication [1]. For instance, the Finance and Budget Committee reviewed the 2018 budget proposal on November 27, 2017 [2] and it was subsequently adopted by Parliament only a month later, on December 22, 2017 [3], with the budget year commencing on January 1, 2018. The Finance and Budget Committee holds a ten-day session during which all budgetary items, including defence-related budgets, are reviewed [3]. However, between the period 2016-2018, minutes of these meetings showed that the Defence and Security Council had not reviewed any defence provisions in the budget [4]. That said, these provisions were debated in a plenary session, although not comprehensively [5].

The approved defence budget with comprehensive and disaggregated information is publicly available on the Norwegian Government’s website [1]. It includes a detailed breakdown of defence expenditures, including figures for personnel (salaries and allowances), military R&D, training, construction, administrative expenses, procurement and acquisitions, disposal of assets and maintenance. Within these categories, detailed line-item descriptions can be found. The Defence Annual Report is also available to the general public, with the most recent report concerning the 2019 budget [2].

When the Norwegian Parliament convenes in autumn (usually at the beginning of October), the Fiscal Budget is always the first item of business for consideration. The Government submits the budget proposal, including the defence budget proposal, by the sixth day of the autumn session [1, 2]. This implies that the legislature receives an accurate defence budget proposal at least 2.5 months before the start of the budget year.

The defence budget from 2016 was reported by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute as 16.7% of the GDP, up from 13.4% in 2014 (1). The defence budget in 2017 was 3,340 billion rials ($8.67 billion) totalling 29% of the overall budget, in 2018 it was raised to 3,440 billion rials ($8.93 billion) totalling 28% of the total budget as declared in the sultan’s Royal Decree 1/2018 (2). Despite a topline figure for the defence budget, there is no breakdown on functions or areas for past expenditure or project expenditure of the defence budget neither in the budget breakdown in the sultan’s royal decree or on the Ministry of Defence website (2), (3). The Times of Oman sets out the budget but makes no mention of the defence budget or spending within the descriptive outline (4). Internally, there is little information about the defence budget other than the news outlets based on foreign sources. The general figure is known, but it lacks a breakdown and has no detailed information (5).

The annual budget was discussed in mid-December 2017 by the Majlis al-Shura before being announced as a royal decree on the 1st of January 2018, according to the Oman Daily Observer (1). In the article, there is no reference to the al-Shura’s scrutiny of budget breakdowns (1). According to the Times of Oman, the al-Shura Council discussed the draft budget with the undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance, presenting their queries and observations however no reference is made to any changes proposed or made neither is there any mention of discussions around defence budget or expenditure in 2017 (2). As stated in sub-indicator 1B, the al-Shura Council does not have the right to discuss security and defence-related issues (3), (4). According to our sources, the council does not have the authority to discuss the defence budget. It is undermined by the executive who has the ultimate power over the defence, mainly the sultan himself (4). No statements reflect that the legislature receives information about the defence budget or past expenditures concerning security and defence.

The general budget of the PA was published online until 2015 (1). In 2016 and 2017 the budget was not released. However in 2018, the prime minister issued a decree to publish all budgets of 2018 and previous budgets (1). The national forces detailed budget is not public, and other financial resources are not included in the budget (1), (2). However, a topline figure is published.

The legislature is not effective (1), and sessions have not been held for years. Therefore, the parliament has not received any information (1), (2).

Budgets and financial reports are publicly available online, including in approved General Appropriations Acts with previous reports available as well. The budget provides details, including on individual service branches, and contains disaggregated information on personnel (salaries and allowances), military R&D, training, construction, maintenance and administrative expenses [1].

In accordance with the annual budget cycle set out by the DBM, the Legislature usually has more than two months to deliberate before the start of a new budget year [1, 2, 3]. According to on an interviewed member of the House of Representatives, the budget hearing commences in August when the execuive submits its budget proposal [4]. The legislature has from August to October to conduct budget review deliberations [4].

The defence budget approved by parliament contains information on expenditure across four areas: grants, benefits (incl. pensions), current expenses (incl. salaries and purchases of goods and services) and property expenses (investments) and across main beneficiaries (as types of armed forces, administration, military education, health service, military courts) [1].
Information on the disposal of assets is available in appendixes on Modernisation Fund of Armed Forces and Military Property Agency [1].
More detailed functions are provided in the MoD budgetary order, however not on training and R&D [2].

The legislature receives an accurate defence budget proposal approximately three months before the start of the budget year. This leaves enough time for discussion and amendments [1, 2].

The defence budget is detailed and includes items on personnel, including wages and allowances [1], defence-related R&D [2], procurement related to the Military Planning Act and the Military Infrastructure Act and detailed administrative expenses [1]. Training is mentioned without budgetary allocation concerning branch activities [1].

According to the latest Budgetary Framework Law, the government is required to submit its budget proposal by October 10th [1], and the latest State Budget Law entered into force on January 1st 2021 [2], which is consistent with a two and four-month period between submission to the legislature and enforcement. There is evidence of timeliness in the proper receipt, evaluation and voting on the State budget, including its defence programme [3]. The National Defence Committee (NDC) evaluates the budget [4].

In 2018, the Qatari government announced its overall budget for 2018, however, the budget does not include any breakdown. The website of the Ministry of Finance includes some information about the overall governmental budget [1]. The website includes brief descriptions for allocations for certain areas, such as the education sector, healthcare sector, transportation and infrastructure, in addition to some information about revenue and expenditure, but does not include further details. The budget that is publicly available includes no information whatsoever on defence budgets and expenditures. A report carried out by Open Budget Survey in 2012, highlights that Qatar severely lacks transparency, in relation to its governmental budgets, including the defence budget [2]. Qatar’s defence budget is linked directly to the Emir office and, therefore, it is difficult to be precise about what exactly is included. [3,4,5]

There is no evidence that the legislature (the Shura Council), represented by the Advisory Council, receives any information in relation to defence budget. In theory, the Shura Council should approve the budget, prepared by the executives [1]. The 2018 budget was approved on December 13, 2017, by the Emir through law no. 25 (2017), but there is no evidence whether this budget had been discussed, debated or approved by the Shura Council [1]. A Freedom House report revealed that although the State Audit Bureau prepares budgets and accounts for government institutions, it does not share their full details with the public or the appointed Advisory Council [2]. There is no evidence of the legislature receiving misleading or inaccurate information on proposed defence expenditures [3,4].

There are just eight top-line parts of the defence budget that are publicly available: 1) national defence, 2) army, 3) mobilisation and paramilitary training, 4) economic mobilisation, 5) nuclear weapons complex, 6) international military and technical cooperation obligations, 7) R&D in national defence and 8) other national defence issues [1,2]. But expenditure is not broken down into functions [3] because the defence budget is classified under Article 5 of the federal law ‘On State Secrets’ [4].

The State Duma Council is the first to receive budget proposals developed by the government and that happens no later than October 1, i.e. three months before the start of the budget year. The defence budget proposal is then sent for preliminary revision and approval to the State Duma and Federation Council Defense Committees [1]. The State Duma Committee revises and refines the structure and appropriateness of defence expenditure [2]. Comment: there is no way to check the comprehensiveness of the proposal that the Committees receive. According to Interviewee 1, parliament gave up its power to control defence policy. Also, according to Interviewee 1, the State Duma Committee on Defence and the Federation Council Committee on Defense and Security cannot receive a comprehensive or true reflection of budgetary intentions because even the Minister of Defence does not know the accurate defence budget.According to the Interviewee 1, sometimes in his public speeches the Minister of Defense refers to the numbers that do not match with the official budget reports published on public resources [3].

According to our sources, there is no detailed budget or aggregated budget of defence expenses available for the public (1). Another source confirms that the detailed budget not available for many of the MoD’s senior administration (2). Very few people are aware of the detailed budget. Saudi Arabia does not publish detailed information about its defence budget (1), (2). In December 2017, the Saudi Ministry of Finance stated that the government would spend SAR 210.0 billion (USD 56.0 billion) on defence when it released the 2018 budget, which represented a 10% increase on the SAR 190.9 billion approved for 2017, representing 21.5% of total expenditure (3). For the first time, the statement of the budget included limited details on how the defence budget would be spent. This included SAR 10.2 billion of the total allocated for “new development programs and projects”; SAR 26.5 billion allocated for activities aimed at enhancing military capabilities and readiness, such as developing military bases, with support for the local defence industrial sector also included within this funding. SAR 3.5 billion is also earmarked for the military education sector (4). Previously, annual reports published by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency provided only “top line” total information on the defence budget (5). Furthermore, the website of the Saudi Arabian Military Industries states that the government will spend SAR 6 billion on research and development by 2030 (6).

The International Institute for Security Studies estimated that Saudi Arabia spent 12.51 per cent of its GDP in 2015, 12.61 per cent in 2016, and 11.30 per cent in 2017 on military and another security spending (7). In May 2018, Saudi Arabia replaced Russia as the world’s third-largest military spender behind the United States and China, having spent USD 64.9 billion in 2017 (8). According to defence research firm IHS Markit, in 2018 Saudi Arabia spent USD 7.7 billion on defence, and that number was forecast to reach USD 10 billion in 2019 (9). According to a Gulf scholar who focuses on the political economy of the GCC, “There is no detailed information available, to my knowledge, of the defence budget at all in Saudi Arabia. General fiscal budget reporting is relatively new. One cannot find, for example, any public information on defence expenditure related to the conflict in Yemen. There is not itemized accounting within defence reporting” (10).

There is no evidence in the founding Royal Decree of the Majlis al-Shura (the rough equivalent of the legislature in Saudi Arabia), nor in its published meeting agendas, to suggest that it receives any information or proposals regarding defence budget expenditure, and this lies outside of the purview of the advisory body (1), (2). According to a former member of the Majlis al-Shura who served there for three years, “while the Majlis scrutinizes every other aspect of the budget, they are not allowed to scrutinize or study the defence budget in any way – nor have they ever done so during my time there” (3). According to the senior auditor within the MoD, report and information on budget and expenses are shared only with the office of the crown prince 4(4). They are confidential reports and not shared outside a closed circle of the office of commander in chief, crown prince and the head of the financial department (5), (4).

According to national security and defence expert Anthony Cordesman, there is “no meaningful transparency” in the Saudi defence budget, which he characterizes as a “major factor in allowing military and security spending to rise to unacceptable levels” (6).

Structure of the defence budget has significantly improved in comparison to the period when the last assessment was conducted. From 2015, budget funds for specific areas are singled out, which is an important contribution to the overall transparency of the defence budget [1]. Namely, the defence budget for 2018 presents separate funds in four different areas: housing members of the SAF and MoD employees, armament and military equipment, military education and scientific research as well as the fund for special links [2]. Also, the defence budget presents different sources of funds separately: budget allocations, own income, donations, income from property sale and unallocated income from previous years. On the other hand, even though the budget contains comprehensive information across different functions, the data is not sufficiently disaggregated. So, for instance, the resources allocated to military security and intelligence agencies are not visible in the defence budget since 2014 [3].

Budget proposals have not reached the responsible parliamentary committees on time in the past few years. The executive has adopted budget proposals in late November or early December, i.e less than a month before the beginning of the next budget year [1, 2, 3]. For example, in 2017, parliamentary committees (DIAC and SSCC) did not consider budget proposals at all.

A defence budget is released annually, which provides a top-line view of the overall budget, the expenditure for the two preceding financial years, and the projected outlay for the current year. However, while it provides some insights on a range of spending categories, it continues to aggregate key information such as procurement into a vague group called ‘Military Expenditure’ which includes expenditure such as equipment procurement, maintenance of equipment and camps, and the allowances and salaries of full-time national servicemen, reservists, and regular personnel [1]. There have been some instances where the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) has provided general statements on future spending trends, but these also remain vague [2].

Singapore’s financial year (FY) begins on 1 April of every calendar year and ends on 31 March of the next calendar year. All government expenditures, including defence spending, are budgeted for and submitted to the cabinet for approval each year. Information on proposed defence expenditures, current MINDEF/SAF developments, and other relevant issues are provided to the members of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Defence and Foreign Affairs (GPC-DFA) in a “timely manner”. The finance minister presents the cabinet-endorsed budget to parliament, generally in February each year. The budget debate and Committee of Supply sessions for the respective ministries typically take place in March, where all members of parliament (MPs) can query the defence minister on the previous FY expenditure, as well as move cuts to the requested budget for the next FY. The bill is required to be approved by the president before it can be enacted [1]. This implies that MPs have less than two months before they review the budget in parliament.

The Defence Budget is publically available, in detail, through the National Treasury and the Department of Defence (DoD) Press working in Parliament are often actively provided budget document upon release [1, 2]. It should be noted that allocations for clandestine (intelligence) services and special forces are kept vague. This is not unusual amongst many militaries but does mean that personnel budget allocation, procurement and other line items are not completely provided. There is a further breakdown in major acquisitions through the Strategic Defence Acquisitions account. This is made available through the DoD Annual Report as well but does not go into specific depth about procurement items. Rather, budget allocations are categorised according to programme type, nature, and size. It is worth noting that the National Treasury has reduced the SDA by R5 billion by 2021/22 [3].

Ministries present their budget “wish lists” from as early as February the year before, with the budget formalised by December [1]. In that process, the ministries consult with the Finance Ministry’s Budget Committee, which determines revised budgets based on policy, available funding, and several other factors. By 1 April (the new financial year), these amounts will be formalised into the national budget document and presented to the National Assembly.

The South Korean defence budget is transparent and key items of expenditure are listed on the Ministry of National Defence’s website, which contains information on salaries, military pensions, food and clothing, maintenance of military institutions, and training and administrative expenses. [1] The National Assembly Budget Office, a fiscal institution which supports the activities of the legislative body, discloses fiscal data on the defence budget annually. In 2019, the annual report, entitled “Public Finance of Korea 2019”, shows spending on major projects that require considerable recurring expenditure from the defence budget, such as the acquisition of new fighter jets (F-X) and the relocation of the U.S. military base in South Korea. However, the defence budget does not contain details of information on military R&D, disposal of assets, procurement and acquisitions. [2]

Every year the South Korean government submits the defence budget proposal approved by the President to the National Assembly 120 days before the start of the fiscal year, in compliance with Article 33 of National Finance Act. [1] The defence budget is reviewed and scrutinised by the National Defence Committee and the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts at the National Assembly. [2]

The defence budget mostly shows topline figures, which have consistently shown that security has taken up the largest share over the years. [1] In some instances, there may be information about the salary breakdown of personnel, as for example for the fiscal year 2014/15. [2] Nevertheless, subsequent budgets for 2018/19/20 show a decrease in detail. [3] [4]

Budget preparation starts in March. This means that the legislature receives it in ample time before the June 30 deadline to table the budget. In this process, the Finance Ministry provides an estimate of the amount of money available – known as the resource envelope – for framing the individual budgets of the ministries. Each ministry, including defence, works with the figure in the resource envelope to craft a budget. After this process, the Speaker of the Assembly authorises the finance and development committee to discuss the budget. [1] Then specialised committees, including the Committee for Security, Defence and Public Order, commence discussions on the budget and their line items. However, at this stage, the discussion is mostly superficial. Legislators are more interested in “arrears” owed to themselves and citizens than the line items in the budget. [1]

The budget is disaggregated, but not comprehensive. The official military budget includes all aspects listed in score 4, with one exception, it does not include expenses from other services different to the Ministry of Defence, such as Military R+D in the Ministry of Industry, Pensions and Social Security (other ministries), International Military organisations (Foreign Affairs); Nacional Centre of Intelligence (Presidency), and it does not include Civil Guard (Interior) and Interest rates of the public debt related to Military Expenditure [1]. There is no one singular military budget that includes the allocations from the MoD and the other ministries.

It was the common practice from 2012 to 2016 (when a sentence of The Constitutional Court prohibited this practice) to use of Decree-law to approve extraordinary loans to avoid including the acquisition of armaments into the regular defence budget. Since 2018 they have been included in the initial defence budget [2, 3]. The cost of military operations abroad has been repeatedly misleading up until 2017, allocating €14.36 million when the final average annual cost was approximately €800 million. These costs were completed with the Contingency Budget not included in defence. In 2018, foreign military operations were initially budgeted at €331 million when €1.174 was already foreseen [1].

The government must present the General State Budgets to the Congress of Deputies at least three months before the expiration of the previous year [1]. Parliament received it regularly during the political year, as stated in the Law of Budget Proposal, between two and five months before the start of the budget year in 2015, 2016 and 2017. It did not apply to the 2018 and 2019 electoral years, due to the irregular processes of the budget debate. However, information at this stage is limited to an aggregate amount (top line) of the Ministry of Defence budget, itemised in five to ten chapters in the final law approved by the Parliament, and it is only at the end of the year (December) when more details are published [2, 3, 4].

In December 2019, the Transitional Government’s Minister of Finance announced an increase in the defence budget from 33.88 billion pounds to 50.578 billion pounds (equivalent to just over $1 billion at the time), noting that the proportion of defence spending in the overall budget had declined [1] – however, experts [2,3] on Sudan’s defence sector conclude that this cannot possibly represent anywhere near the entirety of Sudan’s defence spending; one expert suggested that this probably only refers to the portion of defence spending for which the ministry has visibility and some responsibility: payroll and some administrative running costs [2]. Note that in this case, payroll does not include official payments made to members of defence forces other than the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and national police, such as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), other militias, mercenaries paid to fight in other countries or proxy forces in Sudan and neighbouring countries.

At this time, a transitional legislature has not yet been appointed in Sudan, so there is no legislative participation in defence budget planning. Sudan’s transitional constitutional framework [1] does not envision the election of a legitimately elected representative legislature until at least late 2022.

The defence budget [1] contains comprehensive and disaggregated information on expenditure across functions, including information on personnel, military R&D, training, construction, procurement/acquisitions, maintenance of equipment, disposal of assets, and administrative expenses.

In September each year, the government presents the proposed budget for the forthcoming year to the parliament – i.e. 4 months before the start of the budget year [1].

Every year the government submits a “Message” (“Armeebotschaft”) to Parliament containing a defence spending plan (“Rüstungsprogramm”) and a property plan (“Immobilienprogramm”) which together form the defence budget and get discussed in Parliament [1]. From 2017, the Armeebotschaft also contains so-called framework credits for military materiel. Currently, the Parliament defines then the so-called “payment frame” (“Zahlungsrahmen”) for four years. It did so for the first time in 2016 [2]. The “Zahlungsrahmen” is subdivided into several specific credits including general numbers for the financing of current effectiveness and needs, Equipment and Renewal (AEB), Projects, Testing and Procurement preparation (PEB), Ammunition (AMB), and the property plan [1, 3]. Then the Parliament decides on the yearly spending credits. Procurements of a certain size are typically decided and discussed separately by the Parliament.

The Armeebotschaft for the following year is usually submitted in February and then first discussed during the summer session of the Federal Assembly, leaving sufficient time to prepare and then discuss the details in both chambers [1, 2].

The Executive Yuan issues guidances to ministries on details and comprehensiveness for annual budget compilation [1]; for example, the Ministry of National Defence (MND) and National Security Bureau must compile their 2020 budgets under the strict regulation of “The Guideline for Compilations of Annual Budget of the Central Government” [1]. Most information on these budgets is made available to the public in disaggregated form [2]. Disaggregated information included in annual defence budgets indicates that information includes personnel (salaries, allowances), military R&D, training, construction, procurement and acquisitions, maintenance of equipment, disposal of assets, and administrative expenses. However, the budgets of sensitive items tends to be unclear [3].

One of the most powerful tools for the legislature is the “budget freeze” which prohibits executive branches from executing governmnent budgets. The MND also has to comply with LY’s term and deadline for budget proposal of three months before the beginning of a new fiscal year in order to reduce the possibility of “budget freeze” by the Legislative Yuan [1].

The Guidelines for Compilations of Annual Budget of the Central Government between 2016 and 2020 mandate the MND to provide budget information on time, and the MND acts accordingly [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].

defence budgets are fairly comprehensively prepared but do not go into detailed expenditure. [1] As indicated above, specific items within the defence budgets are considered to be ‘security sensitive’ and therefore are usually given to parliament in general terms. The defence budget has three votes namely: Vote number 39 – JKT, Vote number 57 – Ministry, and Vote number 38 – NGOME. For the year 2017/2018 defence budget, the ministry proposed a total budget of TZS1,910,722,891,000.00 for recurrent expenditure and development expenditure for implementing 2018/2019 ministry duties. Within the proposed amount, TZS1,676,722,891,000.00 is for recurrent expenditure and TZS234,000,000,000.00 is for developmet expenditure, for example paragraph 73 on the ministry of defence budget speech. [2] Of course, since the budget is presented in general terms, it is difficult to see how the parliament can provide effective overight on it.

The legislature, in this case the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Security parliamentary committee, receives the proposed defence budget one month before the start of the budget year (April of each year) according to a permanent parliamentary standing order. [1] Section 97 of the standing orders specify a date where all sectoral committees must start working prior to the commencement of the budget assembly. Section 98 [1] [2] also explains clearly what should be done in that period. [2] Refer to the attached 2019 parliamentary sectoral committee timetable and Parment standing orders attached.

The documents published by the government’s Bureau of the Budget include appendices showing the annual budget allocation for each ministry in detail, including the Ministry of Defence, for example, the Annual Budget Allocation Report 2020. The Annual Budget Allocation Report lists expenditure on personnel, military R&D, training, construction, procurement/acquisitions, maintenance of equipment, disposal of assets and administrative expenses under different action plans. For instance, instead of declaring the ‘personnel budget’ or ‘procurement budget’, the Ministry of Defence Section of the Annual Budget Allocation Report 2020 uses terms like ‘action plan on personnel’ or ‘action plan on national security development’. This means that information on expenditure across functions or procurement/asset disposal is missed out [1].

In 2019, for example, the Thai government publicly announced the defence budget figures for the 2019 fiscal year, which was a budget of over 227 billion Thai baht (just over 7 billion US dollars), as well as an additional 3 billion US dollars for national security spending related to internal threats [2]. In 2020, Thailand’s cabinet approved a draft 2020 defence budget of 233.35 billion baht (7.6 billion US dollars). According to a document published by the Bureau of the Budget, expenditure increased by 2.7% compared to the 2019 defence budget [1]. However, Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, the leader of the Future Forward Party (FFP), noted that, unlike other agencies, the Ministry of Defence was apparently exempt from providing details about off-budget spending, which amounted to 18.6 billion baht in 2018 [3].

According to Budget Procedures Act B.E. 2502 (1959), Section 30, when a fiscal year ends, the Minister issues a Report on Income and Expenses covering the annual budget proposal for the next fiscal year, to be published in the Royal Gazette as soon as possible. According to Section 4, the ‘fiscal year’ in Thailand means a period of one year from October 1 to September 30 the following year [1]. Nevertheless, in January 2020, Thailand’s parliament passed a delayed draft budget bill for the 2020 fiscal year, which foresees a 7% rise in overall spending to 3.2 trillion baht (105.89 billion US dollars) for the fiscal year that began on October 1 [2]. Apparently, the budget bill faced this two-month delay due in part to the invalidity of the bill, as some legislators’ ID cards were allegedly used during the vote in the lower chamber while the legislators themselves were absent [3].

According to our sources, the MoD budget is published in advance to the legislative and to the public for debate, however, it is not very detailed and does not cover all aspects or describe detailed expenditures. The military and MoD budget is mentioned as the total amount without details. However, salaries are mentioned in a seprate area of the budget(1,2). The 2017, 2018 and 2019 budgets are available online on the website of the Ministry of Finance (3, 4).

The Constitution states that “the draft finance law shall be presented to the Assembly no later than October 15 and it shall be adopted no later than December 10” (1). The legislature receives the State’s budget including the budget of the Ministry of Defence before 15 October of each year(2,3). The Parliament received the 2019 State’s budget on 12 October 2018 (2,3,4).

It is not easy to estimate how much Turkey spends on its defence/security sector and the military [1]. The headline figure for spending by the Ministry of National Defence covers only a portion of total military expenditure – other spending on military activities is distributed among several other budget lines and also comes from the profits of private companies run by the Turkish Armed Forces Foundation (TSKGV, Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri Güçlendirme Vakfı), which is currently directly subordinate to the presidency and earns 43% of the Turkish defence industry’s total revenue while undertaking 41% of defence exports as of 2018 [2]. To calculate a figure for total spending, a detailed study would be required first to determine which government spending is for military-related activities and to trace its source [1].

While details of some of Turkey’s military expenditure is available online – such as the budgets of the Ministry of National Defence – access to information about other elements is limited or, in some cases, impossible. For example, estimating the cost of servicing foreign loans taken out for military projects requires the calculation of interest based on incomplete information. In the case of military pensions and transfers from the Turkish Armed Forces Foundation, no public information is available. Calculating or estimating all the elements of Turkish military expenditure leads to the conclusion that the military burden in Turkey is approximately 2.4% of gross domestic product as of 2018 [1].

It should also be noted that there is covert appropriation (discretionary funds) and off-budget funding in the form of the Defense Industry Support Fund (SSDF). As stated in Public Financial Management and Control Law No. 5018 [3], discretionary funds are provided for confidential intelligence and defence services and to fulfil national interests and objectives. As specified in Article 24, the total amount of covert appropriation allocated in the relevant year shall not exceed five per thousand of the sum of the initial appropriation in the general budget. Although the amount of the discretionary funds used or to be used is known or at least estimated, detailed information about the allocation of these funds among the institutions is kept confidential. But the overall data reveals that the total amount of discretionary funding has reached 14.5 billion TL, which equates to a 17.5-fold increase in covert appropriation expenditure between 2003 to 2018, approximately 2.5 times more than the increase in budget revenue during the AK Party era [4].

Article 5 of the Constitution states that budget approval is among the duties and responsibilities of parliament [1]. Article 15 assigns the preparation of the budget to the presidential cabinet. In accordance with this, the president submits a budget proposal to parliament at least 75 days in advance of the beginning of the fiscal year and the budget bill is examined by the Parliamentary Budget Commission [2]. The bill is adopted by the commission within 55 days; it is then debated and voted on in a plenary session of parliament before the beginning of the fiscal year. It should be noted that parliament cannot conduct performance audits/oversight of the executive branch’s spending of the defence/security budget [2]. The power to pass or decline the defence/security budget and the opportunity to discuss the defence/security budget is the most significant oversight/auditing mechanism in the hands of parliament.

An MP suggested in an interview that if the opposition had the majority in parliament, the current constitutional and legal setting would be enough for parliament to have oversight/monitoring mechanisms [2]. ‘In particular,’ he emphasised, ‘a parliament with an opposition majority can easily audit and even veto the executive branch’s budget for defence/security policies and military expenditure. It is also a constitutional right for parliament to oversee the presidency’s handling of security forces because the President is the Commander-in-Chief on behalf of parliament’ [2].

According to the Budget Framework Paper FY 2020/21 for the Ministry of Defence and Veterans Affairs (MoDVA) [1], there are details on what the ministry will spend its budget on, including salaries. The same document also gives the details of the previous years budget achievements and shortfalls. This budget is available to the public on the internet. In recurrent expenditure, Shs1.4 trillion is proposed to be set aside for “expenditure on salaries and other expenses in the Office of the Minister of Defence Headquarters, UPDF Land Forces and UPDF Airforce under Ministry of Defence” [2]. While the actual amount of classified expenditure is known, the public does not know what that money is spent on [3, 4].

The legislature receives an accurate defence budget proposal between two to four months before the start of the budget year. Parliament receives the final Defence Budget by March, four months from the start of the next budget year [1, 2].

The government made some steps for more financial predictability and stability. On January 31, 2018, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted changes to the Budget Code of Ukraine implementing a new three-year budget cycle [1]. The Budget Code of Ukraine provides that it shall contain explanations of all types of expenditures, except for the classified expenditures. The latter, classified expenditures, envisaged for the activity of government authorities in interests of national security, shall be included in the State Budget of Ukraine without a breakdown [2]. As a result, the State Budget of Ukraine for 2018 (as well as the previous ones) contains comprehensive but not disaggregated information, has a superficial breakdown on expenditures across functions and does not indicate expenditures specific for salaries (salaries are a part of expenditures for the “Operating the system of AFU and military training”), allowances (allowances are a part of expenditures for the “Operating the system of AFU and military training”), military R&D (R&D is a part of expenditures for R&D, procurement, modernization and maintenance), etc. [3]. At the same time, in 2016, the MoD started publishing plenty of information on the MoD budget request (the document which also includes information on funding spent in the previous year, making this document also a report and not only a budget request) [4], detailed information on expenditures (for instance amount and average costs of armed vehicles procured) [5] as well as information on the MoD’s implementation of the state budget [6].

In 2015, the government started a good practice of introducing draft laws on the annual State Budget in two and a half months prior to the start of the budget year [1]. In 2019 this trend was more or less kept as the State budget was approved on November 23d, 2019, but proposed much earlier (more than 2 months before the budget year begins). This year, in 2020, government promises to follow the same procedure but it is impossible to predict how it will be so far.

In November 2017, the UAE published the budget for 2018 through national media. The defence budget has been estimated at 6.2 billion dirhams, however, other than aggregated figures, no further details have ever been provided on defence budgets by the government (1). According to our sources, the announced budget is not an accurate figure as there are more offset contracts and aside budget items (unannounced) that come through the Office of the Crown Prince (2), (3).

As previously explained, the FNC is a consultative body in the country and has no power over approving the defence budget, as the defence sector falls under the power of the Federal Supreme Council (1). It has also been established that the FNC does not, in any way, provide oversight to the defence sector in the country. In addition to that, defence budgets are prepared by the cabinet and approved by the Emir (2), with no reference or acknowledgement of any role the FNC plays in this process (3), (4).

The defence budget contains comprehensive and disaggregated information on expenditure across functions. Information includes personnel (salaries, allowances), military R&D, training, construction, procurement/acquisitions, maintenance of equipment, disposal of assets, and administrative expenses [1, 2, 3].

Since 2017, the budget proposal that includes the defence budget is provided to the legislature and the public in the autumn, before the budget year starts in April. For instance, the budget proposal for 2019 was made public on the 29th of October, 2018 – 5 months before the start of the budget year [1].

The defence budget proposed for the fiscal year 2020 contains disaggregated information on expenditure across the different services and includes information on personnel, operations and maintenance, procurement, RDT&E, construction and housing [1]. There is also information about disposal of real property, though not assets.

The 2020 defence budget proposal was released in March 2019 in advance of the fiscal year beginning on 1st October 2019, so seven months in advance [1]. It was originally slated for release in Feburary 2019 [2]. The 2019 defence budget was requested in Feburary 2018 [3].

Information is unknown about the budgets for the fiscal years since 2016, which have been planned and executed without the approval of the legislature.

Since the Supreme Court declared the National Assembly (AN) in contempt of court, the executive branch has not submitted budget acts for approval [1]. In addition to these breaches of constitutional procedural, the executive has not made the budget acts public either [2]. The only information available on the budgets of the different government agencies is unofficial and set out in a summarised and incomplete manner [2, 3]. In the case of the defence sector, only total amounts are known for the years since 2016, and it is not possible to detail the paymet allocations for personnel, hiring and acquisitions, or resources destined for operations, and other expenditures.

The Ministry of the People’s Power for Defence 2016 budget held little detailed information. Although information was included on projects, personnel, and corporate military allocations, these allocations were not disaggregated, nor were procurement and contracting allocations detailed [4].

Despite the constitutional obligation to submit budget acts for the knowledge and approval of the AN [1], the executive has not presented its budget proposals to the legislative following the judicial decision to suspend this branch’s functions.

In 2017, the budget was presented to the Supreme Court and approved by decree. This power is not established by the country’s constitution [2]. The 2018 and 2019 budgets were submitted to and approved by the Constituent National Assembly (ANC) [3]. The ANC is not established by the constitution and was elected through a process that was not recognised by the political opposition; the international community condemned the lack of transparency and the procedural defects that call the legitimacy of this body into question, despite Maduro’s recognition of the ANC as the legislative power [4]. Budgets have been submitted to these entities in a superficial manner, without presenting details on the budget-planning of each public institution.

The defence budget is usually top-line, and it does not provide specific information on military R&D, training, construction, procurements and acquisitions, maintenance of equipment, disposal of assets, among other things [1]. Defence budgets are presented to Parliament towards the end of the year by the minister of finance as part of the national budget [2]. Parliament has the power to review defence expenditures and to propose amendments or to request further information, including (dis)aggregation of budget figures [3]. However, there are no readily available records that show that requests have been previously made to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) or military institutions.

The legislature receives an accurate defence budget proposal less than two months before the start of the budget year [1]. The involvement of Parliament in the budgeting process usually starts in November, running up to December when the budget vote and approval by Parliament is usually done [2]. The Constitution requires that Parliament approves all budget allocations [3].