MOSCOW. Jan 9 (Interfax-AVN) - About 25 percent of officers of the Russian Armed Forces were appointed to new posts in 2002, Colonel General Nikolai Pankov, head of the Defense Ministry main HR department and deputy defense minister, said in an interview with the Krasnaya Zvezda daily published on Thursday.
"Priority was given to manning permanent-readiness units and large units in accordance with the defense minister's demands. Their manning with officers fully meets these demands, which cannot be said about the Armed Forces in general. However the general manning level in the army and navy grew by 1.5 percent in comparison with 2001 as far as officers are concerned," Pankov said.
At the same time, there were several cases of officers being removed from their posts due to poor business and professional skills last year. Criminal cases were opened against several officers on charges of power abuse.
There are two main reasons behind this situation, Pankov said.
"First, the mechanism of personal responsibility for erroneous appointments has not been established. This was confirmed by comprehensive checks effected by the main HR department in units of the Volga-Ural military district and Baltic Fleet. Second, the system of alternative selection of candidates is not functioning," he noted.
The Armed Forces' demand for graduates of higher military educational establishments was only met by 70 percent, the general went on.
"Regardless of the stable decline in the number of expelled cadets, their share is still high and amounts to 19.7 percent. In 1998, this share amounted to 33.1 percent," he said.
"What is symptomatic, many promising officers turn down offers to get enrolled in full-time military academies and universities. The usual reason is concerns over deterioration of financial and housing conditions and problems with finding jobs for their wives. As a result, we do not have enough cadets. For instance, the Naval Academy lacks as many as 13 percent of first- year cadets," Pankov noted.
About 89 percent of initial officer posts are filled, he said. The total lack of platoon and crew commanders amounts to nearly 10 percent.
"We have to take into account that in many districts up to 40 percent of platoon commanders are so-called two-year officers, i.e. graduates of higher civilian educational establishments drafted for active-duty service. They are unprofessional; moreover, their overwhelming majority retires as their term expires, because they do not consider military service prestigious, financially advantageous and socially important," Pankov said.
Early retirement of officers remains among the most acute problems, he noted.
"It will be enough to say that more than half of retiring officers do not reach the maximum service age fixed by the law. 37 percent of retired people are aged 30 to 40, which is the core of the body of officers. And let me give you one more figure, nearly 80 percent of officers who retired early in the Moscow military district are aged below 30," Pankov concluded.