almanac on security sector oversight in the Western Balkans

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4.3. Parliamentary control and oversight
Parliament is the most important oversight institution in the military establishment. 13
In order to ensure transparency and accountability of the military the Parliamentary
Committee on National Security (CNS) 14 discusses and approves the draft budget of the
Armed Forces, can oversee implementation of the defence budget, check implementation
of policies, ask for explanations from the Minister of Defence and accordingly
make recommendations. 15
In practice parliament has played a marginal role in overseeing the Armed Forces
including effective scrutiny of defence budgets. Budget approval tends to be formal
and therefore MPs are not able or willing to include substantial changes. 16 Debate is
general rather than related to the budget. Especially MPs of the majority avoid criticising
the government’s proposals, a practice which with time has led to identification of
the party with the state itself.
Moreover, parliament, while overseeing the Armed Forces, has not relied on multiple
sources of expertise, information and analysis since there are insufficient resources.
As a result, when performing oversight, parliament has used data from the executive
and military, which are the precise institutions that parliament must oversee and make
accountable (Gumi, 2003).
Another cause for poor parliamentary performance is that their specialised support
structures have been generally weak. Traditionally, performance of parliament relied
on individual knowledge of MPs. In general, parliamentarians have limited knowledge
of defence issues and lack expertise to oversee complex activities of government.
The same is true for the Parliamentary Committee on National Security which has only
three personnel, two specialised in security matters and one lawyer, plus an assistant
to the chairman. Considering the workload and activities this committee should perform,
staff is insufficient. There is the Service of Parliamentary Research and the Legal
Service producing policy reviews and recommendation for MPs and committees, but it
has been of only modest use. Frequent turnover of expert personnel due to political
changes and politicisation of its administration has not allowed parliamentary personnel
to increase their expertise and to create a stable institutional memory. In practice,
this has had negative consequences as the opposition members of parliament do not
13 While the executive has responsibility for overall management and control of the security sector as
well as the formulation and implementation of security policies at all levels, the task of the parliament
is to adopt laws, endorse policies and approve the budget.
14 The Committee on Legal Affairs, Public Administration and Human Rights and the Committee on
Economy and Finance are also part of the oversight mechanism but for the purpose of this assessment
the focus will be on the Parliamentary Committee for National Security.
15 This role of parliament is also recognised by the Law on the Powers and Command Authority and
Strategic Direction of the Armed Forces
16 This can be concluded from the discussion of the budget of the MoD, MoI and the NIS for the year
2009 in the Committee on National Security, held on 25 November 2008. Minutes of this discussion are
held by the authors.