London, April 10: British Prime Minister David Cameron is to review the defense budget cut over of the country’s military operations in Libya, Ministry of Defence (MoD) has announced.
Cameron will personally engage in the reduction of the cuts applied to the military personnel and equipment.
Military experts recommended on Thursday that some of the Strategic Defence and Security Review’s (SDSR) cuts applied to the services could be ended now.
The MoD said “significant inroads” were made to the £38bn hole in the military budget. However, the MoD spokesperson insisted that the military operations in Libya and Afghanistan are not affected by the cuts.
It is understood that the plan to scrap RAF Tornados planes need to be reversed. The Treasury is to give the country’s military budget for 2011-1 despite the fact that the change of heart might cost £800m.
However, ministers still insist the review will not be done.
“The Government sought to tackle a £38 billion defence shortfall and an equipment programme that was overcommitted and unsustainable after 13 years without a Strategic Defence Review,” The spokesman at the MoD said.
“Implementing difficult SDSR decisions has made significant inroads into the £38 billion blackhole. At the same time, we are ensuring operations are fully equipped and resourced.
“As we are proving in Afghanistan and Libya, our armed forces have the capability to project power and influence around the world to protect our national security and uphold our values,” The spokesman at the MoD added.
Using the documents from freedom of information requests, union leaders found that the MoD has sharply raised amount of money paid to outside consultants for procurement advice, a job previously done in-house.
“Some of this spending is just obscene. The increase is one of the consequences of previous cuts in civilian staff at the department, and now these consultants are being used in an ad hoc way and it is very expensive,” the national secretary of the union Prospect, Steve Jary said.
The union leaders claimed that the savings could be made from axing outside consultants and also from decreasing the number of high-ranking officers, who are being given civilian posts since no more job positions are there for them.
——–Agencies