‘Defence budget getting smaller and smaller’

CONCERNS were voiced yesterday over the Defence Ministry’s 2011 budget, which opposition DISY said was smaller compared to previous years.

DISY’s Soteris Sampson expressed his concern over the fact that the ministry’s budget, which was discussed in a closed session at the House Defence Committee, was being gradually reduced in recent years.

“The state’s defensive abilities are of vast significance, which is why we are not satisfied with this year’s budget, which again is reduced despite the Defence Committee’s position that these budgets shouldn’t be reduced,” said Sampson.

“DISY feels these reductions are putting the NG’s training in danger, as well as our defensive abilities, and force morale.”

Standing in for Defence Minister Costas Papacostas, who is currently being treated in hospital, Health Minister Christos Patsalides said the ministry’s budget “secures the National Guard’s fighting and defensive abilities”.

But more importantly, he added, the budget has always had a satisfactory implementation rate.

“In 2009, the budget’s implementation surpassed 80 per cent and this year, it will possibly touch on 90 per cent,” said Patsalides. “It is not the initial figures in the budget that are important, but their implementation.”

He said the financial crisis had been taken into consideration ”inevitably” when preparing the specific budget.

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