"The 2022 reports had the lowest on-time compliance rate and reporting compliance remains frustratingly low," the report said.
"The submission of private reports - which represent more than a quarter of the 2022 reports submitted to date - also continues to serve as a significant impediment to arms trade transparency."
The current rate of compliance was not only at a record low but it continued a discouraging year-to-year pattern, Stimson Center report co-author Rachel Stohl told a podcast news conference. In addition, several States Parties continued to omit or aggregate key information in ways that severely limited the insights their reports should have produced, the report noted.
"The war in Ukraine also gave rise to new transparency challenges over the past year. In at least one case, a State Party was delayed in submitting its ATT annual report due to constraints imposed by additional national reporting requirements surrounding its arms transfers to Ukraine," the report said.
In other cases, sensitivities around the release of Ukraine-related transfer data contributed to States Parties withholding information or reporting privately, in some cases for the first time.
Of 113 signatories, only 38 submitted their reports on time, Stohl said.