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ndonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Moeldoko said he had started selecting officers to be stationed at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for its next term.

He said the candidates, who will fill secretary-general and internal supervisory posts, should be at least one-star generals and should apply for early retirement.

Selected military personnel will have to retire to comply with a law that requires officers to retire from the TNI before assuming civil office.

'€œ[The officers] won'€™t be stationed yet, because the KPK still has a secretary-general, but we have conducted the selection process,'€ said Moeldoko after attending a military academy reunion in Magelang, Central Java, as quoted by kompas.com.

Stripped of its three original members, the current KPK leadership will end its term in December. Two KPK commissioners, Abraham Samad and Bambang Widjojanto, are currently suspended due to legal charges, while another member, Busyro Muqoddas, ended his term in December last year.

The government has also started to form a committee to select new KPK commissioners.

Moeldoko refused to say which officers were selected, but he said the officers might have begun their training at the military academy in 1985, as those in that batch would be eligible to retire in less than five years.

'€œThose selected for the KPK are the ones I consider to be the best. Especially for the secretary-general post, he must possess good managerial skills. [The selected officer] will file for retirement before starting their new jobs,'€ he said.

The KPK confirmed on Friday it had offered several key positions to high-ranking TNI personnel.

Interim KPK chairman Taufiequrachman Ruki said he had told Moeldoko that military personnel were welcome to apply for several high-ranking positions at the KPK.

KPK spokesman Priharsa Nugraha said it was nothing out of the ordinary for the KPK to join forces with the TNI as several retired military personnel were already working with the antigraft body.

'€œThere are several retired TNI personnel working as guards at the KPK'€™s detention centers. The head of security is also a military member who is in the process of resigning [from the TNI],'€ he said.

Priharsa said the KPK was chronically understaffed and it would need at least 1,000 new personnel.

'€œThey could be hired to work from Sabang [Aceh] to Merauke [Papua] in prevention and supervision [divisions].'€

The KPK has long recruited most of its staff members, especially investigators and prosecutors from the National Police and the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO) in line with the 2002 KPK Law.

The law also stipulates that the investigators and prosecutors should be temporarily suspended from those two law enforcement institutions during their tenure at the KPK.

News of the KPK'€™s intentions to recruit members of the TNI, often considered a rival of the National Police, broke as the two agencies were engaged in a standoff caused by a recent case involving high-ranking police general Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan.