Soviet Officials Face Grilling by Parliament

Government ministers today for the first time faced a public parliamentary grilling on topics ranging from chronic food shortages to a foiled scheme to sell tanks abroad.

The appearance of the ministers before the Supreme Soviet marked another step toward making appointed officials subordinate to the elected legislature, as envisaged in the perestroika program of President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

Previously, ministers had faced organized questioning only once, at their confirmation hearings last summer.

Most of the heat fell on economic ministers who were asked to explain why an economic revival plan adopted three months ago has failed to produce tangible results.

Vladilen Nikitin, first deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers, said the growth in the rate of food production shrank more than 50% between 1988 and 1989.

“Moving up the introduction of regulated market relations is the only way out of a very difficult situation,” Tass quoted him as saying.

Igor Byelousov, chief of the Soviet military-industrial complex, was grilled about a scheme to illegally export a dozen Soviet tanks to the West. The plan was uncovered and foiled by the military. Tass said deputies wanted to know the responsibility of “those in high places who authorized it.”