MOSCOW, June 22 (AVN) - The Defence Ministry has neither finance nor material resources for preparation of its entire housing fund for the winter period, a spokesman for the head of the Armed Forces construction and housing, told the Military News Agency.
The ministry owns some 10,000 cantonments that include over 200,000 buildings and utility structures, about 1.5m apartments, 120,000 km of engineer networks. 35 percent of the operational 2,725 hi-pressure boilers have exhausted their term of service. Over a third of heating, water and wastewater disposal systems have to be replaced.
The federal budget envisages some RUR7bn (about USD248) for utilisation of the ministry's housing for 2000. The real demand in allocations makes over RUR20bn (USD708.7m). The ministry's experts think the lacking funds will have to be raised by redistributing assignations allotted for capital construction and drawing extra-budget sources of finance.