Political Responsibility for the Activity of Intelligence Services
The top political responsibility, stipulated by the constitutional system, determines the basic legal framework and the strategic direction, i.e. the clear decision about what the intelligence services are allowed/are not allowed to do. The political responsibility of a concrete government with regards to the intelligence services is to make its basic programme objectives and its political concepts, defined by relevant documents, to be in accord and to include them in:
- organizational arrangement of intelligence services;
- elections of directors (the government, or more specifically the minister has the political responsibility; the service is headed by its director);
- budget measures (allocation of funds);
- executive control (do the service do effectively what they are supposed to do?);
- determination of tasks and priorities;
- coordination of services and of their relations to other state bodies.
It is generally true that intelligence services need political support to work effectively. Hence the government should discuss the determination of long-term tasks and priorities and greater interference in the organizational structure of intelligence services with the opposition.
Source: Petr Zeman - lectures, trainings and public speeches