BRATISLAVA, January 17, (WEBNOVINY) — The defense department has a high number of army support staff employees in relation to the number of professional soldiers. Of 24,000 jobs in the department, 13,000 are professional soldiers. “It shows that there is one support staff member per professional soldier,“ said Prime Minister and acting Defense Minister Iveta Radicova on Tuesday.
The current situation has its roots in the era when Slovakia had a massive army that has since been reduced. However, the process failed to downsize the number of civilian employees. “The main problem is internal capacities of the department from the viewpoint of restructuring“, thinks Radicova who believes that personnel capacities of the department should be reformed. She sees the reform as a possible source of funds that should be used to support the armed forces.
Radicova admits that the budget of the defense department has been undernourished for long. Though it has been stabilized, new technologies require further investments. In the situation when the government cut the deficit from eight to five percent of GDP during a single year, any increase of the defense department budget is out of consideration. Despite this, the department saved almost 60 million euros in the era of the previous minister Lubomir Galko (SaS) “This money was saved in a very tough duel and fight against corruption and disadvantageous contracts,“ specified the prime minister. Systemic measures in public procurement and negotiations on discounts led to massive savings as well, specified Radicova. The saved funds were used directly for the army to modernize aviation technologies, buy inevitable equipment, weapons for soldiers and also motor fuels. In late 2011, the decision was made to intensify the scope of military exercises.
SITA