Soldiers moonlighting at IBRA called back
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Jakarta Military Commander Maj. Gen. Ahmad Yahya admitted on Saturday to the existence of an official contract made with the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) to protect IBRA's officials and assets in the capital over the past four years.
"But starting today, I have withdrawn (the military personnel assigned to work for IBRA). For those who are entering retirement or are already retired, IBRA can employ them.
"Moreover, the contract was not extended past March 2002," he told reporters after the celebration of the Indonesian Military (TNI)'s 57th anniversary.
Last Wednesday, IBRA made public the results of its financial audit, which records the allocation of billions of rupiah for all military commands in the country as the fee for protecting IBRA assets across the country.
TNI and Army top executives brushed aside the report, saying that the institution had never had any relationship with IBRA and all the money for the regional commands should be first handed over to the Army Headquarters.
The practice begun in the early days of IBRA in 1998, when a request was made to the now-defunct Jakarta branch of the Agency of Coordinating Support for National Stability (Bakorstanasda Jaya) for protection and security, Yahya said.
The agency then assigned 17 intelligence personnel from the Jakarta Military Command to IBRA, which in turn paid them as much as Rp 750,000 (US$83) per month, he said. IBRA sent this money directly to their personal bank accounts, he said.
"They were asked to run a 'secretive security' service, for example, they were deployed at banks or at the homes of IBRA officials," revealed Yahya, who was recently assigned to his post in August.
The number of intelligence personnel increased to 33 in the 1999 to 2001 term with wages increasing to Rp 1 million each per month, he said, adding that in this term alone, IBRA had disbursed Rp 792 million.
Bakorstanas and Bakorstanasda were disbanded in 2000, which automatically ended the contract with IBRA. But then, IBRA extended the contract with the Jakarta Military Command, he said.
By September, Yahya said, each of the 29 intelligence personnel were paid Rp 1.4 million per month although their contracts had ended in March.
"We have the entire report about the operation, but we did not record the finances in our financial report because the money didn't enter the military command. We calculated that from 1998 to 2002, IBRA had disbursed Rp 1.5 billion," he added.