Jakarta – Indonesia will no longer buy weapons at inflated prices, its military chief vowed yesterday, amid concerns that people were illegally making unwarranted profits from mark-ups.

General Endriartono Sutarto also said that he would launch an investigation into any indication of irregularities in the purchase of weapons and other military hardware, according to the Kompas daily.

"If there are really indications of a mark-up, then it should be followed up," it quoted him as saying in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta.

His comment came after President Megawati Sukarnoputri said on June 18 that she was committed to stopping mark-ups in the purchase of weapons and other military equipment.

One sale likely to come under scrutiny is the purchase in the early 1990s of 39 ships used by the former East German navy. The ships – 16 Porchim-class corvettes, 14 Frosch-class LST troops carriers and nine mine sweepers – together with spare parts and ammunition were bought for US$12 million.

About US$230 million, from German loans, were used to renovate the ships. But less than 10 years later, only 10 of the ships are operational.