Army told to improve accountability, skill

Army told to improve accountability, skill

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Army, which is the most dominant service within the ranks of
the Indonesian Military (TNI), has been praised for keeping its
distance from politics and better respecting human rights.

However, those virtues alone are not enough to improve the
Army's tainted image, according to a military analyst. "In order
to win the people's hearts, the corps has to improve its
financial transparency and technical professionalism," Kusnanto
Anggoro, a military analyst with the Center for Strategic and
International Studies (CSIS), told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Kusnanto was interviewed to mark the Army's anniversary, which
fell on Dec. 15 but will be celebrated on Monday.

The lack of financial transparency, according to Kusnanto, is
evident in the Army's budgetary procedures. The publicly released
budget figures often do not reflect actual military expenditure,
since extrabudgetary funds contribute significantly to military
expenditure, he said.

Data obtained by the Post reveals that extrabudgetary funds
were used, for example, to purchase a squadron of A-4 combat
aircraft and four landing ship tanks (LSTs) in the late 1970s.

Some of the extrabudgetary funds are obtained from legitimate
businesses, including hotels and airlines, run by seven
foundations belonging to the Army. The businesses -- some 50
military-owned in all -- generate revenue and provide extra funds
for the military to finance its operations and altogether improve
the welfare of personnel, notably generals.

"But the problem is that there is no transparency in the use
of the funds," said Kusnanto, who feared that the lack of
transparency in the fund use could lead to corruption.

Besides the lack of financial transparency, low technical
competence is another problem the Army has to deal with.
Technical competence refers to the modern war machines the Army
possesses as well as the ability of soldiers to win a war,
Kusnanto said without going into detail.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu has expressed
concern that the fatalities among his soldiers in the military
operation in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam were largely due to the low
combat ability of his personnel.

In order to develop the combat ability of its personnel, the
Army recently formed and trained 10 battalions of Raider combat
troops, comprising 8,000 soldiers, who will be inducted on
Monday.

Separately, former Army deputy chief Lt. Gen. (ret) Kiki
Syahnakri acknowledged that the Army had not been financially
transparent in the past, especially in regards to the running of
its foundations, but he said that it had been rectified.

In order to minimize the possibility of the misuse of power
and corruption, for example, the Army has prohibited the Army
chief of staff from heading the foundations, with the position of
leading the foundations being given to retired servicemen
instead.

He said it would be very difficult to close the foundations'
businesses, unless the government provided enough money for the
Army to improve the welfare of its soldiers and cover its
expenses for military operations.

He said the Army was in a transitional period.

"At least the Army has promised in a white paper publicly
released recently that one day it will refrain from business
activities," he told the Post.
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