Legislators support TNI procurement contractors

Legislators support TNI procurement contractors

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Legislators voiced their firm support on Monday for the
current contracting system in the Indonesian Military (TNI) and
the Ministry of Defense, a system that had in the past been
instrumental in huge mark-ups of government procurement
contracts.

However, the legislators said that the appointment of any
contractor should be done through a transparent bidding process
to get a reasonable value for all purchases.

The chairman of the House of Representatives' Commission I on
defense and foreign affairs, Ibrahim Ambong, said legislators,
together with the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), would continue to
"actively monitor the military's procurement."

Meanwhile, commission member Effendy Choirie of the National
Awakening Party (PKB) faction also supported the contracting
system and called on the Ministry of Finance to help oversee the
use of the money.

Many have blamed the presence of contractors as the source of
mark-up practices at the TNI and other state institutions.

The military's chiefs of staff urged the government as well as
the House recently to drop the contracting system so that it
could purchase whatever it needed directly from suppliers.

The current contracting policy dates back to the 1970s and
stipulates that all government ministries must use contractors to
procure their needs.

Meanwhile, Director General of Defense Equipment Procurement
at the Ministry of Defense, Maj. Gen. Aqlani Maza (not Aqlani
Masa as reported earlier), revealed that the massive corruption
in the procurement of military equipment in the past was due to
the presence of "some contractors," connected to former president
Soeharto.

He argued that the mark-ups in the past were not the result of
the system but more of the abuses by people allowed in the
system.

He, therefore, defended the presence of contractors in
military procurement system, saying that "we need them because
the TNI does not have enough money to pay in cash."

According to Aqlani, if the government insisted upon stopping
corruption, the government first must know exactly the market
prices of goods and services that it wanted to purchase.

"If the government knows the market prices, the contractors
will have to think twice about their bid price on a project," he
said.

In the future, Aqlani suggested that the government pursue a
government-to-government approach in dealing with purchases of
military equipment and weaponry.

"I'm sure that such a G-to-G approach will curb mark up
practices," Aqlani said.