Soldiers moonlighting at IBRA called back

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"But starting today, I have withdrawn (the military personnel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.