"You
must purchase only high quality hardware at transparent
prices, not for the prices appealing to some companies,"
Medvedev said at a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister
Sergei Ivanov and Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov.
The
president called on the Defense Ministry to scrutinize
every contract to make it as transparent as possible.
"You must be aware of what it all consists of,"
he said.
Medvedev
also urged Serdyukov to speed up the signing of military
contracts.
Earlier
this year the Defense Ministry said it had failed to conclude
contracts worth around 108 billion rubles ($3.85 bln)
or 18 percent of the overall 2011 state defense procurement
budget, due to soaring prices for military products.
Serdyukov
said in July that the Defense Ministry is ready to pay
100 percent in advance to enterprises producing weapons
and military hardware for the armed forces.
He
also said his ministry is ready to buy military products
from local manufacturers at a 25 percent-plus profit to
them, following Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's statement
in May that defense industry enterprises' profitability
should not be less than 15 percent.
