No more brokers for military equipment

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