Ministry of Defense to have final say on all arms chases

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The New Year will mark an end to the existing system of military arms procurement, which allows each armed force to directly purchase arms.

Under the newly introduced "one-gate" policy, the defense ministry will be responsible for the process of arms procurement, ranging from listing the needs of each armed force to the selection of contractors through open tenders.

"The new regulation was issued to streamline the Indonesian Military (TNI)'s procurement procedure, therefore, we can prevent possible markup practices in the future," the ministry's director general of procurement Aqlani Maza said.

Ministerial Regulation No. 420/2004 was signed in June by the ministry's secretary-general Vice Air Marshal Suprihadi, but has only been disseminated to the public recently.

According to the decree, the defense minister is authorized to buy arms directly from foreign suppliers through a government-to- government agreement.

"Based on the regulation, the ministry can directly obtain export credit to cover the purchase. We are now seeking a mechanism (to obtain export credit) that fits us best," Aqlani told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Aqlani said at least two countries, South Korea and Russia, had agreed to accept the government-to-government system.

"We are moving toward the reform of the procurement mechanism and the main goal is to ask all forces to voluntarily leave the long-standing practice of making direct deals with suppliers. This move will enable us (the ministry) to deal with the process," Aqlani said.

Law No. 3/2002 on national defense grants the ministry the authority to allocate budgetary funds for all three armed forces, including for arms procurement.

The new ministerial regulation was disseminated to the public amid mounting suspicion of a markup and 16.5 million pounds (US$23.1 million) worth of bribery in the purchase of 100 armored vehicle, including Scorpion light tanks, in the mid-1990s. The case implicated two former Army chiefs, Gen. (ret) Wismoyo Arismunandar and Gen. (ret) R. Hartono, and also the eldest daughter of former president Soeharto, Siti "Tutut" Hardiyanti Rukmana.

TNI chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto welcomed the new regulation, but underlined that the ministry should pay more attention to the TNI's needs and purchase only the arms that it required.

Endriartono said the state budget would not enable the country to allocate fresh funds to purchase heavy military equipment, which could cost billions of dollar.

"Therefore good coordination between the TNI and the defense ministry is badly needed," he said.

"If the regulation takes effect, I hope the ministry will be able to make a list of priority items for the military, instead of procuring equipment based on what they (the ministry) think we need."