No more brokers for military equipment

From Bisnis Indonesia

Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto has said the TNI has no objection to the one-stop system of defense equipment buying under the Ministry of Defense and suggested the procurement involve no brokers or third parties.

The TNI commander's statement gives the impression that there has been confusion about the purchase of military equipment due to the involvement of brokers. Unsurprisingly, various irregularities have so far been discovered, involving certain officials and their collusion with brokers.

An example is the case of the procurement of Scorpion tanks now used by the Army -- bought through brokers in 1994. It is indeed strange that the top-secret military buy-up was conducted with a broker service at all. The commander's suggestion was meant to prevent a recurrence of such mistakes.

If the purchase of equipment is on an inter-governmental basis, the government should ensure there are no rules that enable brokers to collude with decision-making officials. The Corruption Eradication Commission and the government should investigate such any cases and never let the perpetrators go free.

B. SANTOSO Bogor, West Java