Political Risk:
High
Score:
40/100
Defence and Security Policy and Policy Transparency
Q1
50/100
Is there formal provision for effective and independent legislative scrutiny of defence policy?
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The Parliament has formal powers to approve or veto laws on security. The Constitution provides that the structure of the army is organised in…
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The Parliament debates and reviews defence policy and attempts to influence policy through formal mechanisms. First, the Parliament includes two dedicated defence and security…
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This indicator has not been assigned a score due to insufficient information or evidence. According to our sources, there is a kind of passive…
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Q2
30/100
Does the country have an identifiable and effective parliamentary defence and security committee (or similar such organisations) to exercise oversight?
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There are two defence committees within the Assembly of People’s Representatives : i) A permanent committte named ” Organisation of the the administration and…
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According to our sources, most of all of the members of the Defence and Security committees have little expertise in the defence sector(1). Its…
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The two defence committees appear to fail to review major defence policies and decisions. The review of the activity report of the committee (1)…
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The activity of the Security and Defence committee has mostly been about questioning the Ministers of the Interior and Defence along with retired officers…
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According to our sources, there are no long term investigations with a focus on the defence and security sector. The reason behind that is…
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This indicator has been marked Not Applicable as there are no recommendations from the committee, and therefore, there is no possible way to take…
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Q3
31/100
Is the country’s national defence policy or national security strategy debated and publicly available?
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According to our sources, the legislative council have on many occasions debated the defence and security policy, however, these debates were not in-depth and…
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According to our sources, there is a variety of levels of discussion that range from superficial to real debates on serious issues( terrorism). These…
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According to our sources, until today, the experience of Tunis is to keep discussions and debates on military and security within the official and…
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Some information relating to the security strategy is made public. The National strategy on combating extremism and terrorism which contains some elements about how…
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Q4
25/100
Do defence and security institutions have a policy, or evidence, of openness towards civil society organisations (CSOs) when dealing with issues of corruption?
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There is an informal policy that requires defence and security institutions to be open towards CSOs and the establishment of mechanisms to that end.…
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Although there is a range of protections thanks to the Decree n°2011-88 of 24 September 2011 on the organisation of associations, CSOs still have…
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According to our resources, there are attempts to have a consistent policy of openness towards the public, NGOs and local communities, however, it is…
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Q5
75/100
Has the country signed up to the following international anti-corruption instruments: UNCAC and the OECD Convention?
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Tunisia is not a significant defence exporter (1). Tunisia signed the UNCAC on 30 March 2004 and ratified it on 23 September 2008 (2)
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There are shortcomings in complying with some parts of the Convention. In 2014, 16 gaps were identified by the team responsible for self-assessment of…
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Q6
38/100
Is there evidence of regular, active public debate on issues of defence? If yes, does the government participate in this debate?
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According to our sources, the debate and deliberations are only restricted to specific groups of people such as academics, activists and NGOs. These debates…
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According to our sources, the MoD and armed forces in Tunis engage in irregular debates with certain NGOs and groups of people. Sometimes, the…
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Q7
75/100
Does the country have an openly stated and effectively implemented anti-corruption policy for the defence sector?
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Tunisia adopted a national strategy for good governance and fighting corruption (2016-2020) and an action plan (2017-2018) in December 2016 (1). The charter of…
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According to our sources, there is an action plan within the Tunisian National Strategy for Good Governance and Fighting Corruption. The action plan, whilst…
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Q8
50/100
Are there independent, well-resourced, and effective institutions within defence and security tasked with building integrity and countering corruption?
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According to our sources, there is a unit in every governmental institute which has the responsibility to fight corruption and enhance integrity. These units…
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According to our sources, the central governance units are independent and do not belong to the chain of the commander. However, these units are…
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This indicator has not been assigned a score due to insufficient information or evidence. According to our sources, the units are new and in…
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Q9
NS/100
Does the public trust the institutions of defence and security to tackle the issue of bribery and corruption in their establishments?
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This indicator is not assigned a score in the GDI. According to the Arab Barometer of 2016, 35% of Tunisians trust the Government to…
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Q10
0/100
Are there regular assessments of the areas of greatest corruption risk for ministry and armed forces personnel, and are the findings used as inputs to the anti-corruption policy?
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According to our sources, there are no defence-specific assessments of corruption risk. The MoD does not consider corruption as a great risk and therefore…
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This indicator is marked Not Applicable because there is no evidence of the existence of defence-specific assessments of corruption risk.
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This indicator is marked Not Applicable because there is no evidence of the existence of defence-specific assessments of corruption risk.
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Defence Budgets
Q11
42/100
Does the country have a process for acquisition planning that involves clear oversight, and is it publicly available?
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There is a clear process for acquisition planning in place. According to Decree n°1039-2014 dated 13 March 2014, Organising Public Procurement, the public purchaser…
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According to our sources, there is limited information available for the public or oversight agencies on the acquisition and acquisition planning, this information is…
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Oversight mechanisms exist during the annual budget preparation process and involve specialised departments from the Ministry of Finance and the Presidency of Government. When…
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Q12
63/100
Is the defence budget transparent, showing key items of expenditure? And it is provided to the legislature in a timely fashion?
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Q13
63/100
Is there a legislative committee (or other appropriate body) responsible for defence budget scrutiny and analysis in an effective way?
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According to our sources, the Tunisian Parliament has more than one committee that have the right to scrutinise all matters related to the budget…
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Legally, the defence and security committee has the right to scrutinise and analyse the budget, however, in practice evidence of effective scrutiny could not…
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Q14
50/100
Is the approved defence budget made publicly available? In practice, can citizens, civil society, and the media obtain detailed information on the defence budget?
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According to our sources, the defence budget is published with very limited information. All data on the civil side of the MoD is published,…
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According to our sources, the MoD and MoF do not publish detailed information about the approved budget concerning the armed forces. In general, the…
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According to our sources, there is a change in the last few years about the capacity to access information related to the defence sector.…
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Q15
42/100
Are sources of defence income other than from central government allocation (from equipment sales or property disposal, for example) published and scrutinised?
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According to our sources, the non-central Government funds are registered and shown in the budget. However, this data is not published in detailed formats(1,2,3).…
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According to chapters 3 and 4 of Law n°42- 2004 dated the 13/05/2004 “organic budget law”, these sources of income are subject to the…
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According to our sources, there is no public interest in the non-central Government income to MoD, and therefore no scrutiny or public oversight(1,2,3). It…
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Q16
33/100
Is there an effective internal audit process for defence ministry expenditure (that is, for example, transparent, conducted by appropriately skilled individuals, and subject to parliamentary oversight)?
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According to our sources, there are two types of internal auditing process: the general inspector of the armed forces, and the auditing unit of…
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According to our sources, there is a very limited oversight mechanism in place for sensitive data, and most of the active oversight is related…
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This indicator has not been assigned a scoe due to insufficient information or evidence. According to our sources, there is a high probability (not…
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According to our sources, the MoD tries to meet the recommendations and to change according to critique, but it is not always able to…
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Q17
25/100
Is there effective and transparent external auditing of military defence expenditure?
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Three entities are tasked with ensuring external auditing of public expenditure in Tunisia: Public Services General Control (Presidency of Government), Finances General Control (Ministry…
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According to our sources, the oversight and external entities that have the mandate to scrutinise the MoD are independent however, they are not financially…
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According to our sources, the reports of the external auditing of the MoD are not published for security reasons due to the confidentiality of…
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According to our sources, the MoD tried to meet the recommendations of the external and internal audits but did so irregularly. It is based…
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Nexus of Defence and National Assets
Q18
92/100
Is there evidence that the country’s defence institutions have controlling or financial interests in businesses associated with the country’s natural resource exploitation and, if so, are these interests publicly stated and subject to scrutiny?
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Defence institutions are, by constitutional means, prohibited from having controlling or financial interests in businesses associated with the country’s natural resource exploitation (1,2). Armed forces…
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According to our sources, there has been no case where the MoD or the armed forces have had any business or commercial interest in…
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According to our sources, there could be rare cases of high profile officers who may own businesses and have financial interests, but these are…
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This indicator is marked Not Applicable as there are no financial interests and commercial enterprises managed and owned by the MoD or the armed…
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This indicator is marked Not Applicable as there are no declared financial interests of the MoD, and so there is no public scrutiny of…
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Organised Crime
Q19
100/100
Is there evidence, for example through media investigations or prosecution reports, of a penetration of organised crime into the defence and security sector? If no, is there evidence that the government is alert and prepared for this risk?
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According to our sources, there is very little organised crime within the armed forces. The army and the MoD initiate and tackle any suspicion…
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Although there is a very low likelihood of organised crime, the MoD and the armed forces work effectively to tackle any possible practices of…
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Q20
25/100
Is there policing to investigate corruption and organised crime within the defence services and is there evidence of the effectiveness of this policing?
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According to our sources, there is a specialised unit within the armed forces, under the general inspector supervision that has the capacity to investigate…
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According to our sources, these units are not financially independent and are headed by the executive of the MoD (Minister). Therefore, it is possible…
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According to our sources, there are superficial hearings and investigations yet, there is a low likelihood of cases within the armed forces leading to…
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Control of Intelligence Services
Q21
0/100
Are the policies, administration, and budgets of the intelligence services subject to effective and independent oversight?
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Q22
17/100
Are senior positions within the intelligence services filled on the basis of objective selection criteria, and are appointees subject to investigation of their suitability and prior conduct?
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According to our sources, there are no clear criteria for the appointment of senior positions within the intelligence services. The appointment of senior positions…
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According to our sources, the appointment of a senior position is based on two main factors: professional criteria and loyalty to the executives. The…
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According to our sources, there is a committee usually formed by the President and the Prime Minister to nominate a few people for appointment…
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Export Controls
Q23
0/100
Does the government have a well-scrutinised process for arms export decisions that aligns with Articles 7.1.iv, 11.5, and 15.6 of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT)?
View QuestionLobbying in Defence
According to our sources, there are no regulations or laws that regulate the work of lobbying organisations or lobbyists in Tunis. This is because…
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This indicator is marked Not Applicable, as there are no laws that regulate lobbying defence institutions, and so there is no public information published…
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This indicator is marked Not Applicable, as there are no laws that regulate lobbying defence institutions, and so there is no public information published…
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This indicator is marked Not Applicable, as there are no laws that regulate lobbying defence institutions, and so there is no public information published…
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