Despite earlier reports that 143 police generals hab been fired as part of an ongoing police reform, only 21 have flunked re-evaluation tests which were wrapped up on Monday. In total, 327 generals have cleared the tests, according to words of Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev.

Last week, Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Naryshkin reported to President Dmitry Medvedev that 143 of the country’s 340 police generals had failed the tests. Nurgaliyev did not comment that information.

Naryshkin said the most generals were dismissed for reaching the mandatory retirement age, not misconduct.

The Kremlin-backed police reform has been ongoing since March. It includes trimming the work force by 200,000 officers through re-evaluation tests and introducing a new social security system for the remaining 1 million officers, whose salaries are to triple starting next year.

In total, about 227,000 policemen have been dismissed since the start of the reform. On Monday Nurgaliyev said that 875,000 officers passed the re-evaluation.

The re-evaluation tests, which were not public, were graded by internal commissions that base their decisions mainly on an officer's service record. Some officers who failed the re-evaluations didn't even understand the reason of their dismissals. A senior State Duma deputy with United Russia said some dismissals were made “for the sake of firings,” with no other reason than to meet the quotas for layoffs.

In his turn, Nurgaliyev said he was shocked by some things that he had learned during the re-evaluation process, such as some officers who built their business parallel to their police work.

Source: RIA News The Moscow Times