It is worth noting that the issue of budget transparency about the Intelligence Community is acute, and it is impossible to unequivocally answer the question of whether it is worth supporting or rejecting the Intelligence Budget Transparency Act. This issue is important because the higher the level of secrecy is, the more difficult it is to understand the specifics of Intelligence services, and the more difficult it is to evaluate how effectively they use the funds (DeVine, 2019). In the absence of reliable and up-to-date information, oversight authorities cannot determine and fully assess the role and direction of Intelligence and cannot answer the question of whether funds are being spent to ensure the safety and freedom of citizens.
On the one hand, certain aspects of the Intelligence Community and its activities need to remain hidden since, otherwise, the success of the work of this agency could be compromised. On the other hand, secrecy or partial transparency contradicts the very essence of democratic governance due to the fact that it does not allow establishing full control over Intelligence Community, and this creates a fertile ground for abuse. In this regard, the full implementation of the budget process following the principle of transparency is an unattainable task. In particular, each minor event contributes to the possibility of control or more efficient use of budget funds (Oliver et al., 2019).
At the same time, some budget instruments that are introduced only at first glance increase budget transparency, but in reality, they can be a source of corruption. Even though budget development is proceeding rapidly, problem areas in the direction of transparency of the budget process remain unresolved (Oliver et al., 2019). A compilation of both legal and economic instruments and methods is required to be able to achieve an adequate level of transparency.
References
DeVine, M. E. (2019). Intelligence Community spending: Trends and issues. Congressional Research Service. Web.
Oliver, W. M., Marion, N. E., & Hill, J. B. (2019). Introduction to homeland security: Policy, organization, and administration (2nd. ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.