Jakarta – Indonesian Army Chief of Staff Gen. Djoko Santoso has stated that the Army was prepared to speed up the process of annulling all TNI businesses within two years and not five years as planned earlier.

As a follow-up to this order from the Indonesian Military (TN)I chief, the Army already held a meeting to gather business data within the Army on May 19 this year.

Santoso said that the concept to hand over and manage the Army businesses must be carried out in stages.

The first stage is collecting data and categorizing business units included within TNI businesses. Second, categorizing all TNI Army businesses that are of the same type as a TNI business holding company. Third, the Army handing over its former businesses to enterprises established by the government clearly and legally.

In the future, all costs required by the Army will only come from the state. The management of budget funds will be increased under the principles of efficiency, economy, transparency, the economizing and accountability based on the existing regulatory mechanism.

"When the TNI businesses are annulled, we will hand over all efforts to improve the welfare of soldiers and the civil servants to the government," said Santoso during a working meeting with House of Representatives (DPR) Commission I on Monday (27/06). (Agus Supriyanto-Tempo News Room)