TNI Commander Complains about Lack of Contingency Fund

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Military or TNI Commander Marshall Hadi Tjahjanto voiced complaints about the lack of contingency funds in his institution. Hadi said his institution was often hampered by the budget in responding to the disaster emergency considering his team was the first to arrive in the disaster area than other officers.

Hadi recalled that his personnel was the first to visit the earthquake-hit areas in Lombok, Palu, Sunda Straits, and Lampung, as well as land and forest fire incident in Sumatra and Kalimantan, given the existence of its district-level personnel.

“After then [we realize that] we face one problem. We do not have a contingency fund,” said Hadi during a hearing with Commission I of the House of Representatives (DPR) at Senayan Parliament, Jakarta, Thursday, January 30.

Unlike the National Police institution, Hadi said the Indonesian military must coordinate with other institutions, such as the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB). He hoped his institution could have the same rights as the Police.

Issues about the disaster emergency budget were brought up by the Commission I member of PDIP faction, Effendi Simbolon, during the meeting following the plan to send officers to help with the Australia bushfire mitigation. Effendi opined it would be inappropriate should the operation is mostly funded by the BNPB.

Effendi said that BNPB was not part of TNI and vice versa despite the BNPB was helmed by Lieut. Gen. Doni Monardo. So the armed forces must have higher authority as the matter was mandated in the regulation on military operation besides war.

The meeting, Effendi claimed, concluded that the DPR's Commission I would urge the government to earmark a contingency fund for TNI for the humanitarian mission.

FIKRI ARIGI