Britain’s Ministry of Defence has been criticized over £2bn unspent funds.
Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has faced criticisms from senior military figures following reports of nearly £2 billion underspend in the department’s 2012-13 budget at a time when thousands of staff are being made redundant.
Military bosses accused British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond of failing to manage the defence budget properly after it emerged that the MoD had failed to spend all the money it was allocated, The Daily Telegraph reported.
The MoD’s accounts show that the department spent only £37.7‰billion of its £39.5 billion budget in 2012-13.
A senior officer said Hammond is leading an “overzealous” austerity drive which is forcing unnecessary cuts to the country™s armed forces.
œHe [Hammond] is far too cautious when it comes to taking tough decisions on vital equipment programmes, with the result that the money simply doesn™t get spent. As a result the MoD has been made to look incompetent,” the source added.
The British government is cutting the defence budget by 8 percent over four years, with the Army losing 20,000 posts and the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force losing another 10,000.
Recently, it was reported that the British Army will be forced to declare another 3,000 troopers as redundant in January amid the government™s failure to control the timing and scale of job losses.
Earlier in September, a group of British Conservative MPs also warned against the government™s plans to axe a fifth of the Army™s full-time soldiers and replace them with reservists.
SSM/HE
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