Cash-strapped Czech army freezes recruitment, plans mass redundancies

The Czech army has put a freeze on all recruitment in a bid to cut costs. On Wednesday, the last batch of new recruits for at least one year reported to the military academy at Vyškov to start their training. Before the end of the year, the Ministry of Defence also plans to lay off hundreds of soldiers in a bid to save millions of crowns. Earlier today, I spoke to ministry spokesperson Andrej Čírtek and asked him about the scale of the redundancies:

“In total, we will cut 4,500 places, and 2,800 of these places are occupied. So, in fact, 2,800 people must leave the army or the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic.”

So when will they be leaving the army and who will these people be exactly?

“Mostly, they will leave at the end of this year – 2009. A general identification of these people has already been made and the decision making process about particular places is still going on.”

And I hear that there has been a freeze in taking on new recruits, that the new recruits who were taken on on Wednesday will be the last ones in quite some time. Is this correct?

“Stopping recruitment was decided already in June this year, just after the proposal for the state budget for next year – 2010 – was approved by the Czech government. In this proposal, there were 10.6 billion Czech crowns cut in the army’s budget, which means approximately 20 percent of the budget of the Ministry of Defence and the army. So, as you can see, it is necessary to make savings in all areas, including in investments, and including in personnel.”

So, is this because of the global financial downturn that the Czech army is having to scale down?

Photo: ČTK

“As you know, the economic situation of the Czech Republic is not positive. It is certainly better than some other countries in Europe, but it is a very serious situation and the only way out of this is saving money in the state budget. And of course, defence is a part of the state budget, and it can’t be left out during these saving measures.”

Will these redundancies affect the overall effectiveness of the army, as some have perhaps speculated?

“Mainly, people from administrative and support structures will be leaving the ministry and the army. Combat units should not be affected, as well as our commitments to NATO and our participation in foreign operations.”

So, just to clarify, no Czech missions will be stopped in light of these cuts and commitment to ongoing projects remains?

“No Czech missions will be stopped due to budget cuts. Of course, there will be a need to re-assess some projects, but the priority will be to maintain projects necessary for our operations and the deployments in foreign operations.”