Military Budget Monitoring

On March 22-26, 2010, HCA Vanadzor organized a five-day training on “Military Budget Monitoring” within the framework of the project “Formation of Civil Control over Armed Forces.”

The goal of the training was to teach the participants the principles of military budget monitoring and the implementation tools.

The participants of the training were from the organizations Transparency International Anti-corruption Center, Communities Finance Officers Association, Collaboration for Democracy, Civil Society Institute, Helsinki Association and HCA Vanadzor.

At the beginning of the training the coordinator of HCA Vanadzor, Artur Sakunts, presented the participants with the project concept and the training goal, the necessity for civil control over armed forces as a constitutional right and as a means to control armed forces and prevent militarization.   

The trainer of the training was Dr. Venelin Georgiev from the Institute of Parallel Processing of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Center for Security and Defence Management.

During the five-day training the participants were presented with the concept for civil control and democratic oversight over the armed forces: the goal, objectives, the methods and tools used in the sphere of defence oversight. Importance was attached to the program-based defence management;  the defence missions for Armenia were defined.

Sharing with the Bulgarian and other countries’ practice in the sphere of addressing the current problems related to the process of implementation of defence budget, Dr. Georgiev underlined the necessity for public awareness, transparency and accountability of defence activities.  

All the topics of the training were explained through presentation of theory and practical work.

The participants studied the national legislation and the documents reflecting the defence expenses, such as RA Constitution, National Security Strategy, Military Doctrine and Public awareness Concept of RA Ministry of Defence, trying to identify the constitutional and legal arrangements for civilian control and democratic oversight of the armed forces of Armenia.

During the coming months the trainees will conduct monitoring of military budget and the results will be published and disseminated among state and public structures. 

The project “Formation of Civil Control over Armed Forces” is implemented with the support of Dutch organization ICCO (Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation).