The Minister of Defense explains why the cut in the food ratio failed: “From our experience with Mr. Ilie Bolojan, the arguments prevail”

The Minister of Defense, Radu Miruță, said on Tuesday evening, on Antena 3 CNN, that the proposal regarding the reduction of the food norm for the military was rejected in the coalition after the “rational arguments” presented in the meeting prevailed. The statement comes after Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan announced that there will be no intervention on the food norm, a topic discussed in the administrative reform package.

“From our experience with Mr. Ilie Bolojan, the arguments prevail. Yesterday, during the coalition meeting, he made this proposal, which had not existed before, for which I brought a series of rational arguments, and the arguments won, in the end, it seems, and I am very happy.

The military ration has been in effect since 1864 continuously. From 1864 to today, Romania went through many difficult moments and, however, the military's food ratio did not disappear. Moreover, this food ratio has not been updated since 2017. What would we do, abolish military canteens? Because a good part, 75% of those who receive the food ration, eat in the units, in the garrisons where they are,” said the responsible minister.

“We need security, and it can't be done without people”

According to Miruță, of the “two billion or so” the total economy would have assumed by reducing the food ratio, the Ministry of Defense's component would have been approximately 258 million lei, i.e. almost 10%.

“The degree of enrollment in the Romanian Army is 60%. We need security, and this cannot be done without people. If we take these revenues from the people, do we expect them to flock more to the Ministry of Defense? It's a matter of numbers, compared to how big the benefit is of having people in the system versus what the economy is,” Miruța also specified.

He emphasized that also in MApN “there are areas that can be improved and that could generate greater savings, but not from people's incomes”.

“I'm not saying that the Ministry of Defense should not be part of this effort, and believe me, as I also discovered at the Ministry of Economy, here too there are areas that can be improved and that could generate greater savings, but not from people's incomes, not from recalculating pensions or changing the calculation method, not from reducing the number of soldiers.

And here there are trips, and here there are expenses that sometimes defy common sense. And here are areas collateral to the activity of each military, from museums to various events, where the amounts can be substantially reduced without affecting the core of the Romanian Army”, he emphasized.

The leaders of the governing coalition discussed in the coalition meeting on Monday the cutting of the food ratio for both the employees of the law enforcement institutions and for civilians, which would bring an economy to the state budget, the president of the UDMR, Kelemen Hunor, explained on Tuesday.

According to the UDMR leader, the food ratio costs the state approximately 2.5 billion lei annually.

In the case of soldiers and policemen, the food allowance represents a third of this amount, approximately 800 million lei, Hunor said on Tuesday at the Parliament.

Bolognese: “There will be no action on the food norm”

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan stated on TVR that the discussions regarding the food ratio were “an analysis” made on the proposal of the Ministry of Finance and that no action will be taken on it.

“Yesterday there was a rather long discussion, which was closed during the day today, in which the basic elements of the package for the reform in the administration were agreed. It is true that other aspects were also taken into account yesterday, which relate to the realization of some savings on basic expenses, in such a way that there are fiscal spaces to support investments this year, but, closing all these discussions, including the discussions that were related to the food ratio, they remained in a phase where no action will be taken on the food norm”, said Ilie Bolojan.

He claims that in the case of the food norm, it was only about “an analysis discussion”, made “at the proposal of the Ministry of Finance”.