Swiss finance committee sees no need for action on army finances

Viola Amherd, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency this year, and Chief of the Armed Forces Thomas Süssli. KEYSTONE/KEYSTONE / ANTHONY ANEX

The army does not have a funding problem, but a communication problem. This is the conclusion reached by the House of Representatives finance committee after a hearing with Defence Minister Viola Amherd.

At the end of January, Swiss public television, SRF, reported on an internal administrative document according to which the Swiss Armed Forces will lack CHF1.4 billion ($1.6 billion) by the end of 2025 to pay for defence purchases that have already been made. The following day, army chief Thomas Süssli said that the army does not have a financial shortfall, but a liquidity bottleneck.

This week, Defence Minister Viola Amherd, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency this year, spoke at length on the subject for the first time. She contradicted the head of the army on a number of points. For example, the statement that the army is unable to pay its bills is false.

These contradictory statements led to the Senate security policy committee and the House of Representatives finance committee discussing the army dossier on Friday. Amherd, Süssli and other responsible representatives of the authorities were heard by the committee.

Transparency and openness

“Today, information was provided with great transparency and openness,” said financial commission president Sarah Wyss to the media in the Federal Palace. All open questions had been clarified. The finance committee will not be taking any further steps.

However, it had been made “quite clear” to the defence ministry that the communication surrounding the issue had been poor. “Mistakes have been made,” said Wyss. Defence Minister Amherd was well aware “that something like this must not happen again”.

The communication shortcomings can be attributed in particular to the head of the army, Süssli, who spoke to the media several times about a liquidity bottleneck the day after the SRF investigation. The internal army document cited by SRF also referred to a liquidity bottleneck. According to Wyss, the written and verbal statements were “incorrect”.

There had been communicative misunderstandings that could not have been cleared up, said Wyss. However, the situation is now clear: “There is no financial gap in the armed forces and there is also no liquidity bottleneck.” From a financial policy perspective, “everything is in order” and “everything is correct”.

Poor communication to blame

According to Amherd’s statements to the finance committee, the army can fulfil all of its contractual obligations. However, because parliament has extended the increase in army finances to 1% of gross domestic product (GDP) from the initial 2030 to 2035, “planning changes” are needed, as Wyss put it. Negotiations with providers would have to be renegotiated and projects reprioritised.

“However, the defence ministry has made it clear that it is within budget,” said Wyss. This information from the defense ministry was perceived by the finance committee as “transparent, credible and believable”.

Whether more money should be made available to the army to plug the capability gaps was a political decision, said Wyss. The finance committee had not discussed this. It was up to the security policy committees to decide.

Speaking to the media, Wyss regretted that the army’s poor communication had caused unrest. However, the dossier was closed for her committee for the time being.

Translated from German by DeepL/amva

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