 This ensures that officers and enlisted men swear an oath to a politically neutral head of state, and not to a politician.While the funding of the standing army subsists on annual financial votes by parliament, the Mutiny Act, superseded by the Army Act, and now the Armed Forces Act is also renewed on an annual basis by Parliament.If it lapses, the legal basis for enforcing discipline disappears, and soldiers lose their legal indemnity for acts committed under orders.