4. BUDGETING AND BUDGET AUDITING AT THE TURKISH ARMED FORCES. Aydın DEĞİRMENCİ, 2004

Key Words: Defense, Budget, Audit, PPBS, Performance

Defense expenditures is a assigned share against internal and external threat towards to the integrity of country from the national incomes at the cost of countries’ prosperities ensure independence and continuation of national existency. The greatness of defense expenditures dependent on risk and threat evaluation that the country assume is determined by the political agency. Defense service is pure public goods because of its features for this reason it is financed by taxes. Defense service is carried out by the Turkish Armed Forces being a public organization.

Budgets at the Turkish Armed Forces are prepared according to the a process named Planning Programming and Budgeting System (PPBS). Turkish Armed Forces get the necessary resources in the end of this process. PPBS ties strategy, plan, program and budget together. Turkish Armed Forces use restricted and limited budget resources to get this very comprehensive defence and security service. Therefore auditing of defense expenditures and effective, efficient and economical use of resources become very important. However regularity audit still carried out doesn’t provide effectiveness as it expected from because it includes formal components like as appropriateness the laws, equality and truthness of finacial records etc.

The more effective, efficient and rational use of public resources can be ensured only by performance audit concept which more focuses on outputs(results) rather than inputs. At this extension the other important factor is also multi-year budgeting practices which will establish relations between multi-year plans and budgets. Finally; the more effective and rational use of resources in the Turkish Armed Forces can be get both performance audit and multi-year budget application transition.