Military Expenditure Data in Africa a Survey of Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda OUP 3/11/03 16:51 Page Ii
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
OUP 3/11/03 16:51 Page i Military Expenditure Data in Africa A Survey of Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda OUP 3/11/03 16:51 Page ii Stockholm International Peace Research Institute SIPRI is an independent international institute for research into problems of peace and conflict, especially those of arms control and disarmament. It was established in 1966 to commemorate Sweden’s 150 years of unbroken peace. The Institute is financed mainly by a grant proposed by the Swedish Government. The staff and the Governing Board are international. The Institute also has an Advisory Committee as an international consultative body. The Governing Board is not responsible for the views expressed in the publications of the Institute. Governing Board Ambassador Rolf Ekéus, Chairman (Sweden) Sir Marrack Goulding, Vice-Chairman (United Kingdom) Dr Alexei G. Arbatov (Russia) Dr Willem F. van Eekelen (Netherlands) Dr Nabil Elaraby (Egypt) Professor Helga Haftendorn (Germany) Professor Ronald G. Sutherland (Canada) The Director Director Alyson J. K. Bailes (United Kingdom) Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Signalistgatan 9, SE-169 70 Solna, Sweden Cable: SIPRI Telephone: 46 8/655 97 00 Telefax: 46 8/655 97 33 Email: [email protected] Internet URL: http://www.sipri.org OUP 3/11/03 16:51 Page iii Military Expenditure Data in Africa A Survey of Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda SIPRI Research Report No. 17 Wuyi Omitoogun OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2003 OUP 3/11/03 16:51 Page iv OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi São Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © SIPRI 2003 First published 2003 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of SIPRI or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organizations. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to SIPRI, Signalistgatan 9, SE-169 70 Solna, Sweden You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available ISBN 0-19-924503-7 ISBN 0-19-924502-9 (pbk) Typeset and originated by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Biddles Ltd., Guildford and King’s Lynn OUP 3/11/03 16:51 Page v Contents Preface ix Acronyms xi 1. Introduction 1 I. Background 1 II. Purpose, scope and method of study 7 III. Framework of analysis: the issues 9 IV. The structure of this book 12 2. Existing data sources 13 I. Introduction 13 II. National and international sources of military 13 expenditure data III. The international reporting institutions 17 Table 2.1. African countries which reported their military 14 expenditure to the UN between 1992 and 2002 using the UN Instrument for Reporting Military Expenditures Table 2.2. African countries which included defence 16 expenditure data in their response to the Government Finance Statistics Yearbook request for data, 1992–2002 Table 2.3. Responses to SIPRI, UN and IMF requests for 20 military expenditure data, 1992–2002 3. Cameroon 22 I. Background 22 II. External assistance 23 III. The available official data 24 IV. Data quality 28 V. The composition of military expenditure 30 VI. Trends in and levels of military expenditure 31 VII. Summary: assessment of data 32 Table 3.1. A comparison of data on Cameroon’s military 26 expenditure from different sources, 1981/82–2000/2001 Table 3.2. The composition of Cameroon’s military expenditure, 30 1997/98–2000/2001 OUP 3/11/03 16:51 Page vi vi MILITAR Y EXP ENDITUR E DATA IN AFRICA 4. Ethiopia 34 I. Background 34 II. External assistance 35 III. The available official data 37 IV. Data quality 40 V. The composition of military expenditure 45 VI. Trends in and levels of military expenditure 46 VII. Summary: assessment of data 47 Table 4.1. A comparison of data on Ethiopia’s military 40 expenditure from different sources, 1980/81–1999/2000 Table 4.2. The composition of Ethiopia’s military expenditure, 45 1979/80–1982/83 5. Ghana 49 I. Background 49 II. The available official data 50 III. Data quality 56 IV. The composition of military expenditure 58 V. Trends in and levels of military expenditure 59 VI. Summary: assessment of data 61 Table 5.1. A comparison of data on Ghana’s military 54 expenditure from different sources, 1980–2001 Table 5.2. Ghana: implementation of military expenditure, 58 1985–2000 6. Kenya 63 I. Background 63 II. The available official data 64 III. Data quality 67 IV. The composition of military expenditure 72 V. Trends in and levels of military expenditure 73 VI. Summary: assessment of data 74 Table 6.1. The military expenditure of Kenya: total, and 70 military construction and equipment, 1980/81–1996/97 Table 6.2. The military expenditure of Kenya: recurrent and 72 development expenditure, 1980/81–2000/2001 OUP 3/11/03 16:51 Page vii CONTENTS vii 7. Nigeria 76 I. Background 76 II. The available official data 77 III. Data quality 84 IV. The composition of military expenditure 89 V. Trends in and levels of military expenditure 91 VI. Summary: assessment of data 93 Table 7.1. A comparison of data on Nigeria’s military 86 expenditure from different national sources, 1993–2002 Table 7.2. A comparison of the Nigerian Ministry of Defence 88 proposed budget, government-announced estimates and actual releases from the government, 1996–2002 Table 7.3. The composition of Nigeria’s military expenditure, 90 1990–2002 8. Uganda 95 I. Background 95 II. External assistance 96 III. The available official data 98 IV. Data quality 102 V. The composition of military expenditure 104 VI. Trends in and levels of military expenditure 105 VII. Summary: assessment of data 107 Table 8.1. The military expenditure of Uganda: recurrent and 106 development expenditure and their respective shares of total central government expenditure, 1982/83–1999/2000 9. Conclusions: towards a better understanding of military 109 expenditure in Africa I. Introduction 109 II. The availability of data 110 III. Data quality 116 IV. The trend and level of military expenditure in 124 Africa V. Summary and conclusions 125 VI. Recommendations 126 OUP 3/11/03 16:51 Page viii viii MILITAR Y EXP ENDITUR E DATA IN AFRICA Appendix. Military expenditure and economic data, 128 1980–2002 Table A1. Cameroon: military expenditure and economic data, 128 1982–2002 Table A2. Ethiopia: military expenditure and economic data, 130 1981–2002 Table A3. Ghana: military expenditure and economic data, 132 1983–2002 Table A4. Kenya: military expenditure and economic data, 134 1981–2002 Table A5. Nigeria: military expenditure and economic data, 136 1980–2002 Table A6. Uganda: military expenditure and economic data, 138 1983–2002 Index 141 OUP 3/11/03 16:51 Page ix Preface This report is the result of a study carried out by Wuyi Omitoogun, Research Associate on the SIPRI Military Expenditure Project, between 1999 and 2001. It examines the quality and the availability of data on military expenditure in a selected group of African states. The main reason for carrying out the study was to determine the reasons for the scarcity of African military expenditure data in the SIPRI database in particular and in the major international sources generally. Interest in African military expenditure grew in the 1990s and the increased demand for reliable information was evidenced by the number of requests SIPRI received from various sources—donors, researchers, students and civil society organizations interested in Africa. The problems which SIPRI, and indeed others, faced in meeting this demand made the present study a necessity. A major finding of the study is that African states do indeed publish data on military expenditure but that these are rarely given adequate publicity in the countries of origin. Publicity in the media is limited and the circulation of published budget documents is highly restricted. The result is that those who need the data hardly know that they exist or even where to look for them. This report identifies and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the various national sources of military expenditure data in the six countries it covers. In particular, it shows that the quality of the data varies from country to country and that a number of factors influence this. Two of the most significant are the influence of donors of eco- nomic aid and the general loss of capacity in several countries to compile the necessary statistics. While the influence of donors helps in ensuring that data are produced, their focus on military expenditure and, in some cases, insistence that a certain maximum level of expen- diture on defence should not be exceeded encourage the manipulation of data by the countries concerned. The capacity of some of the countries to produce accurate data has been greatly eroded by the loss of highly qualified personnel from the government agencies res- ponsible for gathering data, who have moved to jobs in the more lucrative private sector and the developed world.