The meeting participants discussed the manning of the Armed Forces with contract servicemen and monitoring state contracts for the Ministry of Defence.
General of the Army Sergei Shoigu recalled that the Presidential Executive Order of May 7, 2012, On Further Improving the Military Service in the Russian Federation, sets the objective to annually increase military personnel by at least 50,000 contract servicemen over a five-year period. To this end, a new system of recruiting this category of servicemen has been created, new numerical indicators and priorities for recruiting rank and file and non-commissioned officers have been established in 2012. According to calculations, the Army and the Navy will have at least 240,000 contract servicemen by late 2013.
Gen. Sergei Shoigu said that since the Army stopped scrapping munitions by controlled explosion in early 2013, 14,000 servicemen were released from this duty, which is not among their specific skills.
The Minister of Defence elaborated on the issue of organising and achieving real monitoring of state contracts which are executed under central control and have full funding for the Ministry of Defence. According to the Minister, increased and often 100% advance funding of the state contracts executed under central control often results in real control of the state customer over further execution of contracts by suppliers, executors and contractors being lost and an increased number of uncompleted projects and undersupplied armaments, military and special equipment. According to the Minister, it is necessary to take concerted efforts to maximise the efficiency of every invested rouble in order to provide for national defence and security, and to solve social problems of servicemen and their families.
Source: Ministry of Defence
