BUDGET · STRESS TEST · ACCOUNTABILITY
Budget-integrity offence: nine legal tests before any criminal sanction
Constitutional stress test for a future offence that targets fiscal fraud without criminalising policy disagreement or honest error.
The offence must never mean “bad policy = prison”
The working offence is screened against legality, non-retroactivity, a clearly identifiable material act, proven intent, individual responsibility, due process, proportionality and the constitutional regimes protecting parliamentary votes and presidential functions.
core: criminal law targets deliberate corruption of the fiscal decision process, not ordinary political error.