Defense budget doubles, but ministry fails to use funds

2025-11-27 07:40:00, Ekonomi CNA

Planned expenditures for the Ministry of Defense have increased significantly during 2021–2024, but their realization has remained significantly lower than forecasts, creating an ever-widening gap between the approved budget and the one that is ultimately spent.

Data processed by the Albanian Parliament shows that, while the government has increased budget planning for the country's defense from 24.7 billion lek in 2021 to over 40.6 billion lek in 2024, the actual use of funds has lagged behind, significantly reducing the implementation rate.

In 2021, implementation reached about 93% of the plan, while a year later the situation improved, reaching about 97%.

But after 2022, the pace has changed. In 2023, a significant decline was recorded, with only 87% of expenditures realized, creating a difference of almost 4.7 billion lek between the plan and implementation.

The trend worsened further in 2024, where the gap reached its highest level at around 6.7 billion lek and the implementation percentage fell to 84%.

Data shows that, although defense funds have increased every year, the capacity to fully utilize them has been weakening.

Budget experts explain that the pace of implementation of defense investment projects is slower than in other sectors.

Many of the investments, especially those related to equipment modernization, military infrastructure or strategic purchases, require complicated procurement procedures, international agreements and long implementation deadlines. Any delay in the tendering processes automatically leads to non-realization of the funds foreseen for that year.

Also, funds are not being implemented due to lack of administrative and technical capacity within the structures of the Ministry of Defense. The rapid increase in the budget requires greater capabilities to design, monitor and conclude new contracts, while institutions are often left with the same human resources and the same work pace as before.

On the other hand, a significant portion of the Defense budget is related to multi-year projects and conditional funding from NATO or other strategic partners. If these partnerships experience delays, technical changes or renegotiations, planned expenditures are automatically postponed to subsequent years, creating a difference between the plan and the implementation./ Monitor