Golkar Suggests To Create Special Committee For Medical Devices Mafia In The Middle Of COVID-19

Illustrations (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - Member of Commission VII DPR RI, Maman Abdurrahman, is furious that in the midst of the COVID-19 disaster there is still a mafia playing in the procurement of medical devices. Maman proposed that the DPR participate in investigating the medical equipment procurement mafia at the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes).

This was conveyed by Maman, who is also a politician from the Golkar Party in a joint meeting of Commission V, Commission VII, Commission IX, and a number of ministers and heads of institutions, Tuesday 5 May.

"My advice, through this joint meeting, we encourage whether the special committee (special committee) or the joint committee (work committee) to specifically focus on the health mafia," said Maman in a virtual meeting broadcast on Youtube DPR RI, Tuesday, May 5.

The suspicion of a medical device mafia, according to Maman, is seen from the attitude of the Ministry of Health which seems unwilling to use domestically produced medical devices.

Maman views, a system in the form of medical device certification from the Ministry of Health makes it difficult to use domestic products and prioritizes incoming imported equipment.

"We already have a complete prototype of the equipment, in this case the Ministry of Research and Technology and BPPT are ready to produce tools such as masks, PCRs, ventilators. But, just for procedural reasons, administration, certification, we are blocking ourselves from saving victims of COVID-19. "said Maman.

Even Maman made an analogy, handling COVID-19 by the Ministry of Health was like causing people to become intoxicated. For Maman, the Ministry of Health is like making the COVID-19 disease in Indonesia more widespread due to the difficulty of the domestic certification process.

"What is the difference between you and you at the Ministry of Health like us who get stuck? Imagine that the equipment can be produced by ourselves, which makes our rules, then we make the rules to inhibit (the use of the tool) itself," said Maman.

"Try, those of you at the Ministry of Health are aware of what you are doing. Don't let COVID-19 pass, you just have to issue the permits," he added.