BRATISLAVA, October 20, (WEBNOVINY) — Despite the fall of the Cabinet, the Ministry of Defense will continue with already announced and planned public tenders. “We are currently proceeding according to the adopted 2011 procurement plan, which is in accordance with the demands of individual MoD components,” confirmed ministry spokesman Ivan Rudolf. He also informed that all ongoing tenders are published on the MoD website in compliance with the law. Tenders for selling redundant property are also continuing. “The Defense Ministry is obliged to handle this without unnecessary delay, rationally, and with maximum efficiency,” explained Rudolf.
The Cabinet’s lost confidence vote in parliament did not result in halting the transformation of the Armed Forces, either. Spokesman Rudolf informed that that is still continuing in line with the planning documents elaborated within the system of defense planning, adopted by either the Cabinet or the defense minister. “These plans are to be carried out with regard to resources available in the respective years,” added Rudolf.
The ministry’s management is convinced that it is also necessary to continue working on the White Book, which is in fact a project stage of the strategic defense review of the anticipated future armed forces. The White Book should precisely define what shall change, be canceled, abolished or newly created in the MoD, and when and how that should happen. “Although the interim Cabinet will probably not be able to adopt strategic decisions in this field, it is necessary that conceptual solutions for future development of the armed forces be prepared for the next Cabinet,” says Rudolf. He added that it will then be up to the new MoD whether it identifies with these recommendations. “We’d like to emphasize that these recent results of the strategic defense review represent mainly the opinions of experts, not those of politicians,” informed the spokesman, adding that the MoD is convinced that changes to the military social security system should also not be abandoned.
“We’ve been working on several projects of high quality, which we probably won’t be able to complete,” admits Rudolf. Equipment modernization will not be completed and fulfillment of the armed forces’ tasks both at home and abroad is complicated. As of now, plans to modernize military helicopters and air transport capacities, which were to be launched in 2012, will also be abandoned.
SITA
