The Prague Post Online: News: Budget, staffing woes plague Army

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July 5th, 2008

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Budget, staffing woes plague Army

More elite troops are deployed abroad as funding issues continue

By Markéta Hulpachová
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
April 30th, 2008 issue

The local military is suffering from a long-term dearth of specialized staff. As recruiting woes continue, forces are being stretched thin by an increasing commitment to foreign missions. On April 23, Parliament approved another deployment of troops to Afghanistan, where Czech soldiers have been involved in U.S. anti-terrorist operations since 2006. Meanwhile, back home, the applicant pool of recruits continues to shrink.

Three years after abolishing mandatory service, the 25,000-member Army is having trouble locating eligible recruits as the amount of applicants for professional service steadily declines.

According to Defense Ministry reports released April 22, the military registered 7,286 applications last year — a decrease of approximately 10,000 since 2005. Positions requiring specialized training, such as lorry driving, cooking and communications are especially difficult to fill.

“It’s a problem, because these are the types of jobs without which the Army cannot possibly function,” said Defense Ministry spokesman Petr Sýkora, who blames the country’s booming economy for the staffing shortage.

While the Army’s starting monthly salary for specialized employees, such as lorry drivers, remains at 25,000 Kč ($1,600), which is a 15,000 Kč base plus a 10,000 Kč housing contribution, civilian jobs and small business endeavors are becoming increasingly lucrative.

“For these types of workers, the Army salary is not as attractive as it was a few years ago,” Sýkora said. Civilian companies are offering wages that are increasingly more competitive, while military salaries have stagnated in the past few years, he added.

To compensate for the lack of qualified recruits, the Army must use its own resources to train specialists.

“We are resolving the problem by training the recruits ourselves,” Sýkora said. “As you can imagine, this isn’t the most [cost-efficient] method.”

The situation is made worse by this year’s budget cuts, which sliced Defense Ministry funding by 1.7 billion Kč.

Last October, the decreased spending earned the country criticism from NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who chastised Czechs for falling short of NATO’s recommendation that members spend a minimum of 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense.

But some say the looming staffing crisis cannot be blamed on the economic situation alone.

The real reason for the shortage, which was initially caused by a shortage of recruits following the abolition of mandatory service in 2005, is the government’s ineffective implementation of defense reforms, said Shadow Defense Minister Petr Hulínský.

After the 1993 breakup of Czechoslovakia, the local military underwent extensive reorganization, reducing staff and implementing a new structure. By the time the country joined NATO in 1999, the military’s original staff of 100,000 was down to 23,000 professionals and 33,000 conscripts as the government moved toward creating an Army made up entirely of professionals.

With the first phase of the reforms completed in 2006, it was up to Defense Minister Vlasta Parkanová to determine the reforms’ future direction. Instead of assessing staffing and economic trends, however, “Parkanová focused on the issues of weaponry and organizational structure without ... taking the Army’s personnel politics into consideration,” Hulínský said.

Another problem, he added, is the chaotic situation within the Army’s human resources departments. “In the past year, the deputy for human resources was replaced twice, and not one single reason for the discharge was given.”

While the Defense Ministry struggles to draw prospective recruits — half of whom typically fail to pass the rigorous physical screenings — with various publicity stunts, Hulinský suggests a more liberal approach. Attracting women and ethnic minorities, offering social and health benefits, and reducing the number of active ‘unproductive soldiers’ should be part of a more modern staffing strategy, he said.

Troops abroad

As for involvement in foreign conflicts, with the ongoing presence of international armed forces in Afghanistan and the west Balkans, Czech troops have been stepping up their participation in missions abroad.

According to Sýkora, the Czech military currently has 873 soldiers on foreign missions. While the nature of their activities has been primarily humanitarian in the past, the soldiers are now being deployed to areas such as Kosovo, where the Czech contingent helped suppress violence following the region’s February declaration of independence, and Logar, Afghanistan, where two Czech soldiers recently died in a suicide attack.

As foreign missions become riskier, the government voted April 2 to increase the bonuses for soldiers operating abroad. While in the past, the bonus pay for soldiers on foreign missions ranged between $700 and $4,000, depending on the soldier’s rank, it has now been increased to $10,000 (troops on NATO mission are paid in U.S. dollars). “Czech troops are being sent on missions that are much more perilous,” Sýkora said. “The bonus pay is a compensation for all the extra hardships.”

Markéta Hulpachová can be reached at mhulpachova@praguepost.com

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