Financial Risk:

Low

Score:

79/100

Asset Disposals

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Q24 67/100

How effective are controls over the disposal of assets, and is information on these disposals, and the proceeds of their sale, transparent?

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Controls Score: 100 / 100
Article 109 of the Federal Law on the Army and the Military Administration (Militärgesetz, MG) regulates the liquidation of assets. It assigns the Federal…
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Transparency of disposal process Score: 50 / 100
Materiel that is not restricted for civilian use is sold by Armasuisse [1]. No general information is available about these sales. They are subject…
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Transparency of financial results of disposals Score: 50 / 100
Income has to be channelled back into the general federal budget according to the law [1]. A motion in Parliament in 2012 suggested changing…
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Q25 67/100

Is independent and transparent scrutiny of asset disposals conducted by defence establishments, and are the reports of such scrutiny publicly available?

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Scrutiny Score: 75 / 100
The Federal Audit Office has previously published audits of liquidation processes (but they are outside of the time frame of this study) [1]. A…
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Independence Score: 100 / 100
Liquidation processes are reported within the regular legislative process, including budgeting and reporting. Thus the same oversight procedures apply. Article 1.1 of the Federal…
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Transparency Score: 25 / 100
Not all reports are systematically published; however, they are generally covered by the Freedom of Information Act [1]. The DDPS also has an independent…
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Secret Budgets

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Q26 75/100

What percentage of defence and security expenditure in the budget year is dedicated to spending on secret items relating to national security and the intelligence services?

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Score: 75 / 100
In the publicly available financial documents in 2018 and 2019, the budget for the intelligence service was slightly above 1% of the overall budget…
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Q27 100/100

Is the legislature (or the appropriate legislative committee or members of the legislature) given full information for the budget year on the spending of all secret items relating to national security and military intelligence?

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Score: 100 / 100
The Swiss Federal Audit Office oversees and audits all public expenditures done by the federal administration with only a few exceptions. This includes military…
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Q28 100/100

Are audit reports of the annual accounts of the security sector (the military and intelligence services) subject to parliamentary debate?

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Comprehensiveness Score: 100 / 100
The parliament exercises supervisory control over the government and the Federal Administration (Article 52 of ParlA). The Control Committees (CCs) “exercise supervisory control over…
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Parliamentary scrutiny Score: 100 / 100
With the adoption of the new Nachrichtendienstgesetz (NDG) in 2015, the oversight system was changed [1]. The Executive Commission of the Federal Assembly (GPK)…
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Q29 100/100

In law, are off-budget military expenditures permitted, and if so, are they exceptional occurrences that are well-controlled? In practice, are there any off-budget military expenditures? If so, does evidence suggest this involves illicit economic activity?

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Permitted exceptions Score: 100 / 100
The different units of the Federal Administration operate with global budgets (i.e. a budget with a global set amount for a fixed period without…
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Recording mechanisms Score: NA / 100
There is no legal provision that would allow for off-budget spending and all spending is subject to parlamentary oversight [1].
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Prevalence Score: 100 / 100
There is no legal provision that would allow for off-budget spending and all spending is subject to parlamentary oversight. There were no reports during…
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Q30 75/100

Are mechanisms for accessing information from the defence sector effective?

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Legal framework Score: 100 / 100
Access to information is regulated in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) [1] and the Ordinance on the Protection of Federal Information (Informationsschutzverordnung, ISchV)…
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Classification of information Score: NS / 100
This indicator is not scored in the GDI. |The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) establishes access as default principle for governmental information (Article 6)…
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Effectiveness Score: 50 / 100
The Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS) publishes online detailed budget information and planning in its submissions to the Federal Assembly…
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Q31 50/100

Do national defence and security institutions have beneficial ownership of commercial businesses? If so, how transparent are details of the operations and finances of such businesses?

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Extent of commercial ventures Score: 0 / 100
Switzerland is the sole owner of RUAG Holding AG that is a provider of aerospace, security and defence technology [1, 2]. In 2018 the…
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Transparency Score: 100 / 100
Switzerland is the sole owner of RUAG Holding AG that is a provider of aerospace, security and defence technology [1, 2]. In 2018 the…
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Military-owned Businesses

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Q32 88/100

Are military-owned businesses subject to transparent independent scrutiny at a recognised international standard?

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Independent scrutiny Score: 100 / 100
Switzerland is the sole owner of RUAG Holding AG that is a provider of aerospace, security and defence technology [1, 2]. In 2018 the…
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Transparency Score: 75 / 100
Full audit details are available to the public. RUAG is a public shareholder company and subject to the same rules as stock companies. The…
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Illegal Private Enterprise

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Q33 63/100

Is there evidence of unauthorised private enterprise by military or other defence ministry employees? If so, what is the government’s reaction to such enterprise?

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Prohibition Score: 75 / 100
The Federal Personnel Law (Bundespersonalgesetz BPG), as well as the Federal Personnel Ordinance (Bundespersonalverordnung BPV), contain provisions on private enterprise for government officials. These…
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Prevalence Score: 50 / 100
In 2016 the internal audit of the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS) published a report on conflicts of interests amongst…
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Actual Military Spending

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Q77 88/100

Is comprehensive data on actual spending on defence published during the budget year?

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Proactive publication Score: 50 / 100
The actual spending is reported at the end of the year State Financial Statement (Staatsrechnung) [1]. It contains overall numbers for income, personnel, administration…
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Comprehensiveness Score: 100 / 100
The actual full spending is reported at the end of the year State Financial Statement (Staatsrechnung) [1]. It contains overall numbers for income, personnel,…
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Timeliness Score: 100 / 100
The Federal Council has to submit the financial statement in the following year at least two months before the session of Parliament when it…
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Comparison against budget Score: 100 / 100
The actual spending is reported at the end of the year State Financial Statement (Staatsrechnung) [1]. Every position is compared to the previous year…
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