The Ministry of Defense enters the new year with arrears of pay. In a news conference on Friday, Minister of Defense Vitalie Marinuta said the institution’s budget for this year is tight and the arrears cannot be settled, Info-Prim Neo reports. The minister did not specify the size of the arrears, but said the servicemen will receive their overdue salaries at the start of next year. Owing to the tight budget, 1,000 military men could not be provided with dwellings. The minister said this problem will be solved next year, when the Ministry of Defense will start a program to build apartments for its employees. This year, only 1.1% of the money allocated to the Ministry of Defense from the state budget was used to extensively repair buildings. According to Vitalie Marinuta, the Ministry of Defense needs a yearly budget of 1 billion lei at least for a period of five years to remedy the situation.