MOSCOW, September 13 (AVN) - One of the serious drawbacks of the draft "Concerning the Federal Budget for 2001" is the lack of mechanism to repay the debts of the Defence Ministry, Army General Andrei Nikolayev, chairman of the defence committee of the State Duma lower house of parliament, told the Military News Agency.
Currently the ministry owes RUR 60bn (over USD2bn) to different organisations and its servicemen. This is almost one third of the expenses planned by the "National Defence" article (the total sum is RUR206.3bn (some USD7.5bn). For instance, the ministry needs RUR4.5bn (some USD162m) to pay its servicemen and employees, some RUR5bn for social welfare payments including RUR3.8bn (over USD136m) to compensate for food rations. The debt to servicemen that took and are taking part in the anti-guerrilla operation in Chechnya reached RUR600m (over USD21m).
According to Nikolayev, before voting for the budget, the deputies have to find out how the government is going to repay the debts of the Defence Ministry. An appropriate regulation should be worked out for this purpose, he said.
The Duma is planning to hold a session devoted to the issue on September 22, Nikolayev stressed.