ABSTRACT
Accountability and oversight are widely regarded as fundamental to the development of effective intelligence communities. Not only are there strong legal and moral arguments as to why these systems should be in place, there is also evidence that they can lead to more effective intelligence agencies. Proper accountability and regulation encourages public co-operation with the intelligence and security services. It also prompts the services to review their own activities and to avoid some of the many pitfalls that await them. Intelligence agencies have historically presented a challenge to the components of government that conduct routine administrative and financial audit. Measuring the effectiveness of a roadbuilding programme is not to hard, but how does the Treasury measure success in the realm of signals intelligence? The budgetary process for intelligence is important but often neglected by scholars of intelligence and the sums are large, with the United States now spending close to $50 billion per year in this realm.
