September 6 (SeeNews) - Romania's defence minister Adrian Tutuianu resigned on Tuesday following what he described as poor communication from the ministry regarding delays in the payment of some wages and monthly benefits to military personnel in September.
Earlier on Tuesday, the defence ministry said in a press release that some wages and payments related to food and accommodation of the military personnel will not be paid on time this month. Following the release, Tutuianu was summoned for discussions by prime minister Mihai Tudose and resigned, recognizing that there was a problem with communication on his side.
"I resigned over the lack of communication. I admitted to the prime minister that I was wrong for not communicating to him and to the media due to lack of time. I told him it was my mistake," Tutuianu said in a televised statement aired by local station Antena 3. "He told me that this is a decision for him to take. I left my resignation letter on the table."
Later on,Tudose said he has accepted Tutuianu's resignation and that he appointed Social Democrat Party (PSD) member Marcel Ciolacu as an interim replacement.
"There is money for salaries, there is money for the army, we have allocated 2% of the budget to the defence ministry, and still we all are talking about whether or not we have money for the salaries of the military," Tudose said in a statement made for local TV station Romania TV.
At the beginning of August, Romania's National Defence Council (CSAT) said the country will spend 9.8 billion euro ($11.5 billion) until 2026 to boost its defence capabilities. The defence procurement programme was approved by CSAT and is part of Romania's commitment to NATO to spend 2% of GDP on defence starting in 2017.
In May, the Romanian parliament approved the launch of tenders for eight procurement contracts worth more than 100 million euro each.
In July, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said the State Department has cleared the sale of seven Patriot air defence systems to Romania for an estimated $3.9 billion. Under the potential deal, Romania will also get equipment for communications, tools, test, training and support, prime movers, generators, technical documentation, spare and repair parts, personnel training and full technical support. The prime contractors will be US defence giants Raytheon Corporation and Lockheed-Martin.
Romania, a NATO member since 2004, is also in the middle of a programme which aims to replace its Air Force's Soviet-era MiG fighter jets with combat aircraft that meet NATO standards. In 2016, the country received nine F-16 fighter jets from Portugal as part of the programme and will get three more by September 2017, taking to 12 the total number of F-16 bought from Portugal.
In May, Lockheed Martin signed a contract with Romanian Air Force to deliver a training system for F-16 Falcon Fighters in 2019.
In order to reach the defence spending target of of 2% of GDP, Romania will add 4.9 billion lei ($1.15 billion/1.07 billion euro) to the defence ministry's budget in 2017. In 2016, Romania's defence spending was equal to 1.48% of GDP.
The defence spending target of 2% of GDP was set at the NATO summit in Wales in 2014. Member states pledged to aim at spending 2% of their respective GDP on defence by 2024. The allies which were already meeting the NATO spending target pledged to aim to continue to do so. The states whose share of GDP spent on defence was below the target level also pledged to halt any decline in defence expenditure and increase spending in real terms as GDP grows.
Since May 2016, Romania hosts the Aegis Ashore NATO ballistic missile defence base at Deveselu, in the country's southwestern region.
(1 euro=4.5959 lei)