NEW RULE ARMS PROCUREMENT

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government plans to enact new policies to minimize corruption in arms deals, an official says.

Defense Ministry secretary-general Lt. Gen. Safrie Sjamsuddin said the 2000 Defense Law and the 2004 Indonesian Military Law regulated weapons procurements by giving the Defense Ministry the sole authority to coordinate purchases with Indonesian Military (TNI) Headquarters, the Army, Air Force and Navy.

The government later issued a presidential decree in 2003 to enforce the two laws.

"We are now campaigning for two new ministerial decrees (to be) issued by the defense minister to ensure transparency in arms procurements both in the Defense Ministry and in the military," Safrie told The Jakarta Post recently.

Ministerial Decree No. 01/2004 regulates the supply of goods and services to the ministry and the TNI through the export credit facility, while Ministerial Decree No. 15 regulates all goods and services bought through other channels. The two decrees require transparency and accountability in arms procurements. All are required to be conducted in public tenders and military chiefs of staff are barred from any involvement.

Safrie said the ministry had adopted a "one-door" system.

However, he said it was proving "impossible and ineffective for us to purchase all spare parts and non-lethal weapons needed by all the forces. The ministry, the TNI Headquarters and forces, therefore, would continue to "have their own lists of private companies who are partners in arms procurements," he said.

The decrees require all arms tenders to be offered to the public. However, in the past most military procurement projects have been won by supplier companies linked to retired military officials or their families.

Safrie said the government had centralized the management of arms procurements because of the Defense Ministry's limited budget.

"We have adopted a one-door policy in arms procurements however, all forces and the TNI Headquarters are still allowed to be involved in procurements and are allowed to buy certain military equipment they need," he said.

Ideally, the Defense Ministry needed funding of around Rp 58 trillion this year but the government had provided it with only half that amount, he said.

This meant the ministry was mostly focused "on routine expenditure to pay servicemen and civilian staff and to finance core military operations," he said.

The country's defense budget -- at only 1.1 percent of the gross domestic product -- was the lowest in Southeast Asia, "Malaysia and Singapore have allocated around 4 percent of their GDP for defense."

Because of the limited defense budget, Indonesia had several times bought weapons, including Russian-made Sukhoi jets and Mi-17 helicopters, under government-to-government export credit facilities, he said.

Separately, ministry director general of arms procurement Rear Admiral Pieter Wattimena said the ministry would follow the directions in two ministerial decrees to clean up future arms deals.

"The supply of weapons, spare parts and other materials will be conducted under the ministry's coordination, and chiefs of staff and other officials in all the forces will no longer be allowed to be involved. We will no longer purchase military equipment at the behest of willing partner companies," he told Detik.com here recently.

"All tenders will offered to the public. The direct appointment of partner companies will only be allowed in emergency cases and for certain spare parts," he said.