Measuring third world security expenditure: A research note

Abstract

There is growing evidence that important amounts of security expenditure may not enter the budgets or the national accounts of many developing countries. This article outlines five of the most common mechanisms used by governments to obscure their security-related outlays: double bookkeeping, use of extra-budgetary accounts, highly aggregated budget categories, military assistance and governmental manipulation of foreign exchange. Delineating those countries which have used these — or other — mechanisms is difficult but some examples do exist and are used here to illustrate how countries have hidden security-related expenditure from public scrutiny.