Background & Purpose: Budget management in military organizations is of strategic importance due to its critical role in ensuring defense readiness, optimizing resource allocation, and enhancing organizational efficiency. Despite the allocation of a substantial share of public resources to the defense sector, various challenges and deficiencies may undermine the effectiveness of the budgeting system and hinder the achievement of strategic objectives. Therefore, the present study aimed to identify and analyze the pathologies of budget management in the Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Methodology: This study is applied in terms of purpose and qualitative in terms of research approach. The research population consisted of experts and senior managers with extensive knowledge and experience in planning, budgeting, and financial management within the Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Participants were selected through purposive sampling until theoretical saturation was achieved. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis at three hierarchical levels: basic themes, organizing themes, and overarching themes.
Findings: The findings led to the identification of 7 overarching themes, 21 organizing themes, and 63 basic themes. The overarching themes included structural challenges in budget management, process-related challenges, executive and control challenges, human and managerial challenges, technological and information-related challenges, legal and supervisory challenges, and strategic and environmental challenges. The results indicated that centralized financial decision-making, weaknesses in performance-based budgeting, inefficiencies in budget allocation and execution processes, shortages of qualified human resources, inadequate information infrastructure, deficiencies in financial supervision and auditing systems, and the lack of alignment between budgeting practices and defense strategies constitute the major pathologies of budget management in the Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Conclusion: The implementation of performance-based budgeting, redesigning resource allocation and control processes, developing integrated financial information systems, enhancing the professional competencies of personnel, strengthening financial governance and oversight mechanisms, and aligning budgeting practices with defense strategies can improve the efficiency, transparency, and effectiveness of the budget management system in the Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran.