MOSCOW. Jan 29 (Interfax) - Relations between the Russian Defense Ministry and a number of defense contractors are unsatisfactory, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.
"If we find common ground with someone fairly quickly and make decisions promptly, then there are companies which today continue haggling. Precisely haggling, not trading," Shoigu said at a joint collegium of the Prosecutor General's Office, the Defense Ministry and the Ministry of Industry and Trade on Wednesday.
The Defense Ministry has done all it could to ensure transition in 2014 to full lifecycle contracts in the framework of the state defense order (government defense contracting), the minister recalled.
"I would like to remind everyone: we are talking about the state defense order, we are talking about the country's defensive capability, about re-armament, for which the country made an effort and raised 20 trillion rubles, and we were given the opportunity to have effectively a new army by 2020," Shoigu said.
Also, a lot was said in 2012 about the difficulties related to the so-called "military acceptance" (whereby the quality of defense products is monitored by the Defense Ministry's representatives at the supplier's facilities), but we are now reverting to this practice, the minister said. "In 2013 we restored over 14,000 military-acceptance jobs in main areas of our activity," he said.
Currently, the Defense Ministry is handing over to the industry 99 equipment-repairing enterprises, with the Ministry retaining only ongoing maintenance and post-sale services, Shoigu said.