DPR Suggests Government Mortarium On The Merger Of Eijkmen To BRIN

JAKARTA - Member of Commission VII DPR, Mulyanto, asked the government to conduct a moratorium on the fusion of a number of research institutions such as the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology, BATAN, BPPT and others to the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN).

The reason is, this decision caused a commotion because it had an impact on the fate of the employees and researchers at the research institute. Especially in the midst of the development of the Red and White vaccine testing.

"The government should have a memoratorium or pause the process of merging research institutions into BRIN if the facts are causing such a commotion," said Mulyanto to reporters, Friday, January 7.

He suggested that the government first listen to input from former leaders of the Non-Ministerial Research Institute (LPNK) and institutional workers who are in danger of being dismissed from their jobs due to the impact of the merger.

Moreover, said Mulyanto, Commission VII of the DPR saw that the government was slack in handling human resources after the merger. Where, the case of HR from LBM Eijkman, Kapal Baruna and BPPT employees who reported to Komnas HAM attracted public attention.

“There are those who report that it has been almost three months that ex-BPPT researchers do not have a clear place and job. Functional officials, engineers are confused about their future careers," he continued.

Mulyanto explained the mandate of Article 48 of Law 11/2019 concerning the National Science and Technology System which states: To carry out Research, Development, Assessment and Application, as well as Inventions and Innovations, a national research and innovation agency is formed.

“That is just one aspect of the influence of institutional arrangements on human resources. In general, Mulyanto sees that the spirit of institutional fusion is high, but it is not accompanied by good human resource management,” he added.

The PKS politician also considered that this bureaucratic commotion was the result of changes in BRIN's organizational structure that were not properly prepared. It started with changing the function of reviewing and applying technology in BPPT which was merged into BRIN in the form of OPL (lit-bang-ji-rap implementing organization).

Unfortunately, he said, in its development this organizational unit disappeared and shrunk to just an OR (research organization).

"This means that with such an organizational structure, what remains is only the research function, while the functions of developing, studying and implementing science and technology are lost," he said.