Jakarta (ANTARA) - The National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) ensures that the assets owned by the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology are managed properly in accordance with applicable regulations.

According to the BRIN press release quoted in Jakarta, Friday, the acquisition and transfer of assets from the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology (LBM) was carried out in early 2022 in the process of integrating research institutions into BRIN.

"BRIN began to take over and transfer LBM Eijkman's assets in early 2022 as part of the integration process as well as (carry out) the return of land and building assets in the RSCM area to the Ministry of Health cq RSCM," Head of BRIN Laksana Tri Handoko stated.

He noted that since the start, the asset has been on the loan-to-use status from the Ministry of Health.

Handoko said that the integration of research infrastructure is an important initial strategy in the process of consolidating all scientific and technological resources, so that the government, through BRIN, can become a lever for all parties to enter into research activities easily.

The agency head noted that while transferring assets, BRIN had come across several problems related to the management of LBM Eijkman's assets as stated in the report on the results of an audit, with a specific purpose conducted by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK).

The report mentions the existence of unrecorded assets, unrecorded assets grants from the State Intelligence Agency, as well as storage of assets and supplies in third-party warehouses.

According to Handoko, BPK discovered the problem while auditing LBM Eijkman's assets in the second semester of 2022.

"The audit is to see conditions during the period of 2021 to semester 1 of 2022. This audit is part of an audit, with the specific objective of looking at asset and budget management at BRIN before the liquidation process of the former five entities is executed prior to integration," he explained.

After the process of taking over the assets, Handoko said, BRIN has carried out overall governance improvements and rearranged assets to ensure that all of them comply with the applicable state asset governance rules.

"Currently, most of the assets of former LBM Eijkman have been operated at the Cibinong Genomics building along with a variety of other sophisticated tools, including the latest Cryo-EM to view protein structures and the Central Sequencing Lab," he stated.

Coordinator of Cryo-EM-Based Research Development Sandi Sufiandi explained that the transfer of laboratory equipment from various institutions had been carried out properly and was running smoothly.

"Regarding the transfer process, we mapped out everything. What is certain (is that) we make sure the goods are there because they belong to the state," Sufiandi remarked.

He said the laboratory equipment that had been transferred could now be used by researchers from within and outside BRIN.

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Translator: Sugiharto Purnama, Cindy Frishanti Octavia
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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