VLADIVOSTOK. Oct 3 (Interfax-AVN) - A composite commission of the Armed Forces logistics support department has completed a check of the Pacific Fleet.
"In cooperation with the defense minister's financial inspection, we spent a month checking the work of the fleet's departments, services, large units and units as far as economical and legal distribution of budget funds is concerned," Army General Vladimir Isakov, head of the Armed Forces logistics support department and deputy defense minister, told Interfax- Military News Agency on Thursday.
"We hold such checks biannually. As the fleet has gone through a series of reductions in the past few years, our goal this time was to find out where the property of abolished units has been transferred. It was very important to make sure that the entire materiel is in units and places where it should be," Isakov said.
Several cases of loss and embezzlement have been exposed, he said.
"There are some issues which we did not have time to look into. That is why a group of officers stays at the fleet to team up with the military prosecutor's office and look into the materiel's whereabouts. There are problems of this kind," the general said.
"I supervise a comprehensive check of the fleet for the third time. I think it allows me to see the true situation, given that over 120 people were working, not just one group, and they visited all garrisons. We checked 20 percent of units and large units. Using the collected data, it is possible to describe tendencies the fleet displays. There are signs of changes for the better in some units, but not everywhere, I must admit, which is extremely disappointing. It turns out that having equal service conditions, material support level and financing, some units function fine and others the other way around," Isakov said.
Asked on the progress in the experiment on the adoption of a single logistics support system by all law-enforcement agencies, which was launched in three Russian regions on January 1, the general said: "Let me put it straight from the beginning that this is not an experiment, but a planned transition to a single logistics support system that is to be completed in 2005. The future belongs to this system. We have summed up results three times: first, in the Central region, second, in the Baltic Fleet, and third, in the Far East. We have arrived at the conclusion that the work should continue. First of all, it should not cause any damage, this is the main principle. Everything about the logistics support system is connected with people, their social benefits, payments, etc. All law-enforcement agencies have points of contact, where we are identical to each other. At the same time, each agency has its own peculiarities. We must take them all into account."
"The government will sum up results in the first quarter of next year and determine what should be sped up, what should be delayed and what way to continue. Now I can say that this approach has proven effective," Ivanov noted.
He said that supplies of the fleet's troops and forces had improved and fuel limits expanded since the beginning of the experiment. As a result, combat training has advanced, the fleet's units have started making more sea voyages, and pilots have got more flying hours. "There are absolutely no problems with food supplies," the deputy minister stressed.