BRATISLAVA, August 17, (WEBNOVINY) – Defense Minister Lubomir Galko admits that he is not satisfied with the draft budget for next year, but he is not going to threaten to resign over it. As he told SITA news agency, such threat would be a form of blackmail, which is not the way he does things. Defense expenditures in the 2012 draft budget are higher than the original plan in the budget outlooks, being increased from the original 0.99 percent of GDP to 1.03 percent of GDP. The Defense Ministry should get directly 1.01 percent of GDP, representing EUR 754.3 million. Galko does not consider the increase sufficient. In its strategic evaluation, the ministry was considering stabilization of its budgetary chapter at 1.1 percent of GDP.
According to minister Galko, it is important that the budget does not decrease in the next years, as it has been until now. “For us, stabilization of the budgets is most important, which has more or less been pre-negotiated. It means that the GDP portion will not change in the next ten years,” the minister said. He finds the amount of funds allocated in the first year equally important, in particular with regard to the condition of the Army’s technological equipment. Galko is convinced that there is space for the ministry to get more funds. The department plans to slim down officers’ structures and lay off civilian employees.
SITA