Transparency of Defence Budgeting
I.
MISSION OF THE PROJECT
The mission of the project "Transparency of Defence Budgeting"
is twofold:
- to promote
domestic and international transparency of defence budgets,
and the defence budgeting process, throughout South Eastern
Europe and,
- to encourage
good practice in defence decision making (policy making, planning,
programming and budgeting), with particular reference to accountability.
The successful
achievement of this mission should encourage the efficient management
of the defence resources and increase the effectiveness of the
civilian control over the armed forces thereby contributing to
the improvement of regional stability and confidence building
among the South-East European states.
II. GOALS OF THE PROJECT
1. Providing transparency in the process of defence budget formulation.
2. To promote and suggest proper mechanisms to allow countries
to identify adequate Armed Forces according to need and affordability.
3. Preparation of the countries of the region for accession to
the European and Euro-Atlantic security structures.
4. Promoting best practices in the defence budgeting processes
and the management of defence resources.
5. Acting as a catalyst for continual improvement of the civilian
control over defence budgeting.
6. Supporting the initiatives within the OSCE.
III. PROJECT DEVELOPMENT
Transparency and efficiency of defence budgeting is a fundamental
part of the systems of democratic control over the Armed Forces,
established in most of the countries in Central and Eastern Europe
over the last decade. As an effort to promote regional cooperation
in this area, at the meeting of the Stability Pact Working Table
III (Security Issues), held on 15-16 February 2000 in Sarajevo,
Bulgaria, in close cooperation with the United Kingdom, agreed
to take on the leadership of a Task Force to initiate a comparative
study of military budgeting in SEE. The Bulgarian Ministry of
Defence has proposed its partnership to the states and organizations
interested in this area to use the already existing experience
and expertise in our defence system and to share those practices
within South-East Europe.
An initial seminar on "Promotion of Transparency and Democratic
Decision Making in the Formation of SEE States Military Budgets"
was held in Sofia on 6-7 June 2000, in cooperation with the United
Kingdom and a broad participation of the South-East European states.
This seminar sought to raise awareness among SEE countries of
the need for and benefits from transparency of military budgets
and to explore the scope of transparency.
On the basis of a ìnon-paperî adopted during the seminar this
initiative was further developed into a project on "Transparency
of Defence Budgeting", aimed at providing means for the efficient
management of the defence resources, increasing the effectiveness
of the civilian control over the armed forces, improving the regional
stability and contributing to confidence building among the SEE
states.
Under the auspices of Stability Pact Working Table III, the first
joint meeting of the Multinational Steering Group (MSG) and the
Academic Working Group (AWG) of the project for Transparency of
Defence Budgeting was held on 15-16 March 2001 in Vienna. The
meeting was organized and hosted by the Permanent missions of
the UK and Bulgaria to the OSCE. Delegations participated from
Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,
Greece, Romania, Turkey, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as
well as Canada, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, France, Italy, Sweden/EU
Presidency, United Kingdom and the USA.
During the discussion a common understanding on the definition
of transparency of military budgeting was agreed. The participants
discussed and adopted the final text of a Project Paper, describing
the aims of the Initiative. A Multinational Steering Group of
the Initiative was constituted, including all countries and organizations
represented at the meeting. It was agreed that the next meeting
of Multinational Steering Group would be held in October 2001.
This meeting will assess the progress achieved in the implementation
of the Initiative.
During the Vienna meeting Terms of Reference of the Academic Working
Group were discussed and adopted by the participants. An appeal
was made to participating countries to nominate their representatives
to the Academic Working Group. It was agreed that the next meeting
of the AWG would be held in Sofia, Bulgaria in May 2001. At the
joint meeting it was also agreed to establish a Group of Experts
(GOE) of the Initiative that would be located at the Defence Staff
College in Sofia, Bulgaria. The GOE will be responsible to the
MSG.
IV. AWG MEETING /21-22 MAY 2001, SOFIA
As agreed at the meeting in Vienna, on 21-22 May 2001 the centre
of GOE was officially opened by the Deputy Minister of Defence
V. Shalamanov. Military attachÈs in Sofia, foreign consultants,
representatives of the media and other guests attended the opening
ceremony. After the opening a meeting of the Academic Working
Group was held.
During the meeting in Sofia the AWG focused on the following issues:
- Creating
a methodology for comparative study of the defence budgeting.
- Creating
a mechanism for exchange of information for SEE states defence
expenditures.
- Organizing
exchange to the best practice in the area of defence planning,
programming and budgeting and harmonizing the initiatives
in the planning and budgeting system.
- Identifying
the common trends in the evolution of requirements towards
the defence and defining the defence policy goals.
- Developing
and maintaining the defence budgeting information system
- Supporting
implementation of the fundamental concept for management of
defence resources. Developing, accessing and introducing methods
for system analyses and modelling for supporting the process
of decision making for defence resources allocation.
- Adopting
common terminology and standards for defence expenditures
allocation and proposing a common system for budget classification.
- Defining
the organizational structures for implementation of tasks
and a mechanism for decision-making.
- Training
experts in the field of budgeting systems within the Stability
Pact framework.
The participants in the meeting discussed in a concrete mode the
final structuring of the Academic Working Group, the issue of
accepting new members in AWG, the basic rights and responsibilities
of AWG, the structure of the data and analytical conclusions that
should be submitted by the participating states, the terms and
methods for exchange of data, the support of the AWG for the structuring
of the Group of Experts (GOE) and the creation of working conditions
for the experts, as well as issues of planning and organisation.
The AWG agreed upon and discussed the following papers to be prepared
by the GOE:
1. Yearbook on South-East European Defence Spending
- methods
of compiling the Yearbook
- structure
of the Yearbook
- methods
and deadlines for information gathering
- data
structure - the data for the Yearbook should be unclassified
and its contents should be based on the Vienna Document í99
categories (Annex 1)
- period
for data gathering and preparation
- sequence
of data gathering
- preliminary
draft for the activity planning (time schedule)
- deadline
for the creation of the Yearbook ñ in relation with the October
MSG meeting
- summarizing
the repetitiveness of the process and a plan (procedure) for
work for the creation of the Yearbook
- appointing
a Project Officer for the Yearbook
2. Survey of
South East European Defence Budgeting Systems
- Discussion of organization activities and format of the Survey.
Clarification of the process of conducting the Survey
- Preparation of the experts with regard to the ways of gathering
and sending the information
- Analysis and summary of the information
- Preliminary assessment of the similarities/differences, strengths/weaknesses
of the participating states
- Appointing a Project Officer for the Survey
The AWG
suggested that the work on the Survey of South East European
Defence Budgeting Systems could start by examining the existing
practices, related to the transparent defence budgeting (composition
and execution) in the fields of:
- Parliamentary control (Committee Reports, Parliamentary Approval
and Scrutiny, National Audit Office Report)
- Legislative processes (Law for Approval and Execution of the
Budget Defence Law, Law for Public procurement, Register of
Purchases, Law for the Civilian Access to the Administrative
Information and other special Lows)
- Administrative processes (Defence White Paper, Major Project
Statement, Ministerial Report, Ministerial Audit, Defence Statistics).
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