Monopoly over secret funds

The secret funds, which were under the Prime Ministerial Office’s control in the parliamentary system, will now be controlled by the Presidency. Details such as what secret payments are devoted to, who the expenditure will be made by and the method for keeping and closing accounts will be determined “in secret” by the Presidency and not the Prime Minister. The process leading to the Presidency having the sole say over the secret funds started with an omnibus law enacted in 2015, not with the harmonization decree with the force of law or presidential decrees. In an amendment made in 2015 to an article of the Public Financial Management and Control Law, the Presidency entered a partnership with the Prime Minister’s Office with respect to the secret funds. Through the regulation made after Erdoğan had been elected President following his time as Prime Minister, the provision whereby the secret funds were included in the prime-ministerial budget was amended in a way that would ensure its inclusion in the presidential and prime-ministerial budgets.

Accordingly, these funds were assigned to the President along with the Prime Minister “to be used for covert intelligence and covert defence services, the national security and supreme interests of the state along with the demands of state prestige; for political, social and cultural purposes and state and government requirements relating to extraordinary services.” Given that “covert intelligence and defence services” are not part of the President’s remit set out in the Constitution, this has been criticized, inviting questions of whether the President is an intelligence operative or intelligence agency staffer.

 Incremental increase

 Secret fund payments have increased incrementally from year to year since the partnership with the Presidency. Total secret fund payments, amounting to 1.078 billion lira in 2014, rose to 1.773 billion lira in 2015 in which it came under the partnership with the Presidency. In 2016, 1.616 billion was made in secret fund payments. In 2017, in turn, 1.9 billion lira in payments was “made secret.” The secret fund payment system was “adapted” to the new system under the 2 July harmonisation decree with the force of law, which saw inclusion of secret funds solely in the presidential budget. The way was opened for technical details such as what secret payments are devoted to, who the expenditure will be made by and the method for keeping and closing accounts to be determined solely by the President. The amount of payments to be made from secret funds is declared after expenditure has been made. According to statute, the amount of secret fund payments must not exceed 0.5% of the initial amount allocated to the general budget.

 Who can spend it?

 The intelligence agency, General Directorate of Security, Interior Ministry, National Defence Ministry, National Security Council and Trade Ministry can also make expenditure from the secret funds included in the presidential budget under the head of “secret service expenses.”

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