Financial Risk:
Moderate
Score:
59.1/100
Asset Disposals
Q24
33/100
How effective are controls over the disposal of assets, and is information on these disposals, and the proceeds of their sale, transparent?
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The disposal and sale of military assets is governed by Title 10, Chapter 153 of the US code [1]. The DoD disposal process is…
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The disposal process includes 42 days, which are known as the ‘screening cycle’ and broken down into the four stages mentioned in 24A. During…
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The relevant DLA Financial Report (Working Capital Fund) from FY 2020 includes principal financial statements and there is a single line relating to dispositions.…
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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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The DLA has its own Inspector General and Office of Inspector General. Within this office, there is an Audit Division which undertakes independent internal…
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There is no evidence of undue influence by the executive or the military on the independent audit undertaken by Ernst & Young. GAO is…
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The audit opinion of the external auditor Ernst & Young is included in the annual financial reports of the DLA [1,2,3,4]. These reports do…
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Secret Budgets
Q26
25/100
What percentage of defence and security expenditure in the budget year is dedicated to spending on secret items relating to national security and the intelligence services?
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Since 2010, annual intelligence spending has remained a relatively constant proportion of annual national defence spending, representing around 11% of the overall annual defence…
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Q27
75/100
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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According to recent research on the ‘Black Budget’, the colloquial term for the NIP and MIP budgets, there is a set of individuals in…
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Q28
0/100
Are audit reports of the annual accounts of the security sector (the military and intelligence services) subject to parliamentary debate?
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There is very little publicly available information on the auditing of the Intelligence Community financial statements in general or the MIP and NIP budgets…
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This indicator is marked ‘Not Applicable’, as there is no information indicating that either of the two select committees on intelligence, or legislators in…
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Q29
25/100
In law, are off-budget military expenditures permitted, and if so, are they exceptional occurrences that are well-controlled? In practice, are there any off-budget military expenditures? If so, does evidence suggest this involves illicit economic activity?
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Off-budget expenditures are typically ‘supplemental appropriations’, which are used to provide for unforeseen needs. For example, supplemental appropriations were used to fund the recovery…
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The OCO is recorded in the DoD budget overview, however, a disaggregated record of the OCO funding is not published [1]. The overview outlines…
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The OCO budget in FY 2020 was $173.8 billion, $96 billion more than the amount appropriated for FY 2019 [1,2]. Only 15% of the…
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Q30
75/100
Are mechanisms for accessing information from the defence sector effective?
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The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) states that any person has the right to request access to federal agency information, however, there are nine…
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This indicator is not assigned a score in the GDI. Executive Order 13526 sets out the classification standards that are followed by all government…
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The DoD FOIA Handbook states that an initial determination to release or deny a request should be made within 20 working days of receiving…
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Q31
100/100
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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Q32
100/100
Are military-owned businesses subject to transparent independent scrutiny at a recognised international standard?
View QuestionIllegal Private Enterprise
Q33
75/100
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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The ‘Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch’ prohibits outside employment that conflicts with official duties unless prior approval is given…
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Given the examples in the ‘Encyclopedia of Ethical Failure’, it would seem that unauthorised private enterprise is occasionally an issue for military and civilian…
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Actual Military Spending
Q77
75/100
Is comprehensive data on actual spending on defence published during the budget year?
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The DoD publishes an agency-wide financial report for the previous fiscal year, overseen by the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) [1]. The report includes…
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The annual financial reports do provide significant detail on expenditures, although disaggregated details on specific programmes are not provided. For example, it is not…
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The fiscal year in the United States begins on 1 October and ends on 30 September. The annual financial reports in 2018, 2019 and…
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The financial report includes a ‘Statement of Changes in Net Position’, meaning the sum of unexpended appropriations provided to the DoD that remain unused…
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