BRASILIA, Brazil, May 26 (UPI) -- Brazil's Ministry of Defense is to reschedule its spending for 2015 following a reduction of funds earmarked for 2015 in the annual budget law.
The amount now available about 24.8 percent lower that the earlier earmarked amount of about $7.3 billion.
"Aware that this budget reduction in 2015 is a prerequisite for economic stability, the Defense Ministry will make efforts to reschedule spending for the current year, in order to minimize the impact on its activities," it said.
The ministry said it will prioritize commitments already made and effect management improvement measures to reduce costs. If necessary, scheduled deliveries of systems and services would be revised.
All agreements and commitments already made will be prioritized, and the management improvement process will be intensified in the constant quest to reduce costs. If necessary, the deliveries schedules of defense products will be revised, as Defense Minister Jaques Wagner stressed during hearings held this week in the House of Representatives and the Senate. The reduced values of strategic projects will still be calculated from the publication of the Presidential decree.
"Our strategic projects must not suffer any discontinuity," Wagner said in hearings of Brazil's House of Representatives and Senate. "They may suffer, so to speak, a slightly deceleration because of what we are going through, and I recognize the need for adjustment. But we cannot discontinue any program that is strategic in defense of either the Navy, Army or Air Force," because if it's very easy to delay a program, it quickly tends to discontinue and stop very fast.
