MOSCOW. Feb 20 (Interfax-AVN) - A group of generals and officers of the Armed Forces logistics support service led by Colonel General Vladimir Isakov, chief of the service and deputy defense minister, will head for the Russian Far East on February 26 to sum up results of a comprehensive check of military units stationed in the area.
The inspectors started working in the Far East already on January 15 this year, Isakov told Interfax-Military News Agency on Wednesday. "The inspection led by me surely checks main installations of each military district and fleet once in two years," Isakov said. Following the inspections, the defense minister issues an order encouraging decent officials and punishes negligent ones.
Violations are exposed in almost every military district and fleet, Isakov said. "It is probably impossible to avoid losses and shortages taking into account our budget totaling over RUB50bn (USD1.62bn). Despite all violations, the damage they cause makes about 0.001 percent of allocations," the general added.
According to him, an effective system of control and prevention measures, of which planned inspections are the highest form, makes it possible to localize losses.
A criminal case on charges of embezzlement is not they completed in the Russian troops group in the Trans-Caucasus, Isakov stressed. Several officials of the 102nd base located in the Armenian town of Gyumri, including Colonel Andranik Aivazyan, deputy commander of the base in charge of logistics support, have been fired. An order of compensation for the damages inflicted by those officials will be fixed after the court makes a decision on the case.
Drawbacks in the financial and economic activities are behind the theft. Taking into account impunity and lack of control from the base's commander and commands of the troops group and the North Caucasus military district, the officials concluded agreements with various companies on the supplies of foodstuffs. The volume of supplies by far exceeded the base's needs, so the troops received the amount of foodstuffs they needed while the rest was stolen.
The damage to the Defense Ministry made RUB19m (USD615,130). Prosecutors prevented conclusion of agreements on non-existing foodstuffs worth several dozens of millions of rubles.
Isakov noted that violations in the distribution of materiel were registered in the Leningrad military base of the Baltic Fleet and the theft of aviation occurred in Air Force units stationed in Siberia in 2001.