BPK refuses to comment on state budget report<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) has refused to
\ncomment on the government accountability report on the
\nimplementation of the 1999\/2000 state budget, which may prompt
\nlegislators to reject the budget report outright.<\/p>\n
The result of the BPK audit was revealed on Monday during a
\npreliminary talk between the House of Representatives state
\nbudget task force and Minister of Finance Rizal Ramli.<\/p>\n
\"BPK has no opinion because the government has not implemented
\nthe necessary accounting system as demanded by the agency,\"
\nlegislator Amri Siregar said.<\/p>\n
The possibility that legislators could reject the government
\naccountability report came as the House had earlier asked the
\nPeople's Consultative Assembly (MPR), the country's highest
\nlegislature, to hold a special session to impeach embattled
\nPresident Abdurrahman Wahid.<\/p>\n
The House task force is expected to conclude the deliberation
\nof the government state budget accountability report this week.<\/p>\n
The April 1999-March 2000 state budget was approved by the
\nHouse during the administration of then president B.J. Habibie,
\nthe hand-picked successor of former authoritarian ruler Soeharto,
\nbut half of the budget period was carried out by Abdurrahman
\nafter he won the presidential election in October 1999.<\/p>\n
Starting last year, the state budget had been designed based
\non a calender year system instead of the fiscal year system.<\/p>\n
As had occurred in the past, the government only submitted the
\nbudget report to the House to be debated some 16 months after the
\nbudget period ended.<\/p>\n
Rizal strongly appealed to the House not to reject the
\ngovernment budget report.<\/p>\n
He said that the weak accounting system and the lack of
\ntransparency in the implementation of the 1999\/2000 state budget
\nwere merely due to the system inherited from the corrupt
\nadministration of Soeharto.<\/p>\n
But Rizal said that the new government was now committed to
\nimproving the accounting system and to boost transparency in the
\nimplementation of the state budget.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, director general of the state budget Anshari
\nRitonga said that the government would adopt a more widely-
\naccepted accounting system starting in 2002.<\/p>\n
He added that the government had proposed three new bills to
\nthe House that would improve transparency in the implementation
\nof state budget and prevent abuse by government officials.<\/p>\n
\"We hope the House can immediately approve the bills,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Contrary to other legislators, Aberson Marle Sihaloho, a
\nsenior member of the House budget task force, said that there was
\nno legal basis for the House to reject the government budget
\nreport.<\/p>\n
He agreed with Rizal that the current problem was a result of
\n\"too much\" authority given by the House to Soeharto in the past
\nin managing the state budget.<\/p>\n
Aberson said that there would also be no reason for BPK to
\nissue a \"no opinion\" stance now, when it had not done so in the
\npast during the rule of Soeharto.<\/p>\n
\"The conditions for the 1999\/2000 state budget were the same
\nas the conditions during the Soeharto era,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"But let's just use this issue to improve transparency in the
\nfuture. Let's learn from the mistakes of the past,\" he added.<\/p>\n
Aberson pointed out that in the future the budget
\naccountability report should be made within a six-month period
\nafter the state budget had been implemented, not 16 months as it
\nused to be.<\/p>\n
BPK said earlier this year that it had found 1,760 instances
\nof financial irregularities involving a total sum of more than Rp
\n11.8 trillion in the management of the state budget and state
\ncompanies in the fiscal years 1999\/2000.<\/p>\n
The irregularities included deviation from the law, non-
\ncompliance with austerity and efficiency, deviation from set
\nobjectives.(rei)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/bpk-refuses-to-comment-on-state-budget-report-1447893297",
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