The Parliamentary Commissioner’s annual report
The Parliamentary Commissioner is required to submit an annual report to the Bundestag for each calendar year. There are no detailed guidelines regarding its content, and he must therefore base his report on the dual task assigned to him by the constitution, namely to exercise control and to review petitions. Consequently, it deals largely with negative occurrences and incidents in the Bundeswehr. For this reason, past holders of the office have regarded the annual report primarily as a report on deficiencies and not on the overall state of the Bundeswehr.
In addition to monitoring adherence by the government to the constitution and federal laws, the purpose of parliamentary control is to enable parliament, on the basis of its own findings, to be directly involved in identifying difficulties and unwelcome developments and, as a result, to put forward ideas and suggestions for remedial action. In his annual reports the Parliamentary Commissioner therefore deals with violations by superiors and military authorities of the basic rights of service personnel and of the principles of Innere Führung; however, he also looks in depth at the general conditions under which the Bundeswehr operates and service personnel carry out their duties. In particular, he provides important indications as to the effects of existing laws and regulations insofar as they touch upon the principles of Innere Führung. He thus acts as a kind of early warning system for parliament. Naturally, his remarks and comments cannot always be free of political and parliamentary considerations.
The Parliamentary Commissioner’s annual reports are used by parliament, in particular by the Defence Committee, as a basis for discussion of and decisions on the internal development of the Bundeswehr. Thus, they draw the attention of parliament to the special concerns not only of individual members of the armed forces but also of the Bundeswehr as a whole. By virtue of his reports, therefore, which initially cast him in the role of watchdog, the Parliamentary Commissioner becomes a kind of intermediary between service personnel and the Bundestag.
The Parliamentary Commissioner’s annual report has always met with a great deal of media interest. Media coverage of the report helps to inform the general public about the concerns and problems of the Bundeswehr, and to promote public acceptance of the need for any remedial action. At the same time, it helps to focus parliament’s attention on the report.
Because the annual report examines negative incidents and trends in the Bundeswehr, there is a danger of the ensuing media coverage being one-sided and, occasionally, sensationalist. However, this cannot be a reason for the Parliamentary Commissioner not to fulfil his statutory mandate, namely to provide a true and thorough account of his findings. Moreover, the constitution, in the interests of our country’s free and democratic basic order, stresses the importance of freedom of the press and freedom of reporting by the media in general. Isolated cases of biased and ill-informed reporting are the price that has to be paid for such constitutionally enshrined freedoms.
The Parliamentary Commissioner’s annual report is addressed to parliament. It is submitted to the President of the German Bundestag in the first quarter of each year and published as a Bundestag printed paper. Immediately after publication, it is distributed among service personnel. The President refers the report to the Defence Committee, which requests the Defence Minister to comment on it. Once the Defence Minister has submitted his comments, the Defence Committee discusses the report. In the course of its deliberations both the Defence Minister and the Parliamentary Commissioner have an opportunity to elucidate and expand upon their views. The Defence Committee ends its deliberations by drafting a report and a recommendation for a decision in parliament, both of which are referred to the plenary for a public parliamentary debate. During the debate, the Parliamentary Commissioner is given leave to speak if this is requested by one of the parliamentary groups or by at least five per cent of the Members of the Bundestag. This is regularly the case.
In his comments on the Parliamentary Commissioner’s annual report, the Defence Minister also elaborates on measures needed to remedy the deficiencies it describes. The following year, parliament is informed about the progress made in this respect.
As soon as the annual report has been published as a Bundestag printed paper, an appropriate number of copies is sent to the Bundeswehr to ensure that service personnel are informed as swiftly as possible.
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