• Georgia ranked as having moderate to low defence budget transparency;

• 24 other states are in the same ranking category as Georgia;

• 16 per cent of the countries under review in this study score high; these are primarily developed countries with strong democratic systems in place. Twenty-two per cent score Moderate to High. Sixty-two per cent of countries score Moderate, Moderate to Low, or Low.

Transparency International UK has published an initial review of the Transparency of National Defence Budgets. The primary goal of collecting country-specific information was to create an initial picture of the extent to which countries uphold principles of defence budget transparency. All countries maintain a certain level of secrecy about funds spent on intelligence, the protection of witnesses, and similar activities. Secrecy and the protection of highly sensitive information, however, can be compatible with transparency if governments use sound management principles and strong legal systems are in place. In the aforementioned report, Georgia is in the second lowest ranking category along with states like Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Afghanistan, India, Mexico, Nicaragua and etc.

In this report, the research team examined the public information related to defense department budgets of 88 states. Other main sources for this report were the Open Budget Index (OBI), Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) database, the UN Instrument for Standardized International Reporting for Military Expenditures, scholarly articles, publications by NGOs, and National or Ministry of Defence Budgets available online.
Based on the findings, states are ranked by defence budget transparency on a scale from low to high, with a total of five points on the scale: Low, Moderate to Low, Moderate, Moderate to High and High.

Out of eighty-eight countries, fourteen countries scored High. These countries are France, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, United States of America, and etc. Twenty-one countries ranked with low levels of defence budget transparency. These are countries such as China, Egypt, Honduras, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia and etc.
The report shows that 16 per cent of the states have scored high; these are mainly developed countries with strong democratic systems in place. Twenty-two per cent of states fall into the Moderate to High ranking category that is comprised of diverse set of countries from Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. The findings indicate a major challenge – 62% of the countries scored Moderate, Moderate to Low or Low in defence budget transparency.

Report Methodology

The aforementioned report is based on the 2010 Open Budget Index (OBI) questionnaire which is a study of general budget transparency overall in each country. The OBI report specifically studied the issues of national defense and security spheres. The OBI questionnaire consisted of the following questions: 1. Are the defence budget proposals, approved budgets or audit reports made publicly available by the government?; 2. During a budget year, what’s the expenditure percentage on national security and military scouting?; 3. Are reports pertaining to the execution of the defence budget made available to the public and to parliamentarians regularly (in-year, mid-year, year-end); 4. How well-trained are the auditors who check agencies/branches of the security sector (military, police, intelligent service).

The defect of the defence budget Transparency There are a number of limitations of using only the OBI 2010 for country ranking. This report is focused on judging the availability of information to the public and the legislature; however, the risk of the government providing inaccurate information (intentionally or otherwise) is not considered. The report addresses budget transparency—not necessarily levels of corruption or accountability. In order to enhance the robustness of the research, a more detailed questionnaire has been developed and Transparency International UK will used in the future for a more accurate assessment of defence budget transparency.