Emil urges govt to probe WB leakage<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Senior economist Emil Salim urged the government
\nyesterday to take further steps in investigating the alleged
\nleakage of World Bank loans, saying it had been a problem for
\ndecades.<\/p>\n
Emil said Coordinating Minister for Development Supervision
\nand State Administrative Reforms Hartarto Sastrosoenarto should
\ntake a harder look at the ministries using World Bank funds.<\/p>\n
\"Hartarto should directly investigate, case by case or project
\nby project, because the leakage happens in the projects. The
\nleakage can be traced through data from the inspectorate general
\nand the BPKP (the Development Finance Comptroller),\" Emil said
\nafter opening a seminar on the role of cooperatives in the reform
\nera.<\/p>\n
Emil was commenting on a recent report in the Asian Wall
\nStreet Journal that quoted a World Bank internal memorandum
\nstating that officials in Jakarta were believed to have siphoned
\noff more than 20 percent of the bank's money earmarked for the
\ncountry.<\/p>\n
The paper quoted the report as saying that much of the
\ncorruption involved state contracts with firms owned or
\ncontrolled by government officials and their relatives.<\/p>\n
The report found the worst siphoning of funds -- 25 percent or
\nmore -- in the ministries of home affairs, transmigration and
\nforestry, the Journal said.<\/p>\n
Emil, a senior minister under one of former president
\nSoeharto's cabinets and now an outspoken government critic, said
\nit would be difficult to determine the exact percentage of funds
\nsiphoned off, but admitted that corruption in World Bank-financed
\nprojects had become public knowledge.<\/p>\n
Emil said that when he was minister of transportation from
\n1973 to 1978, he received a report about a leakage of funds under
\nan export credit scheme provided by the U.S Export Import Bank to
\nfinance the Palapa satellite project.<\/p>\n
\"I checked the report directly with the president of the U.S
\nExim Bank and found nothing to support such an allegation. That's
\nwhy I suggested the government trace it directly to the actual
\nproject and not to the donor,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Minister of Forestry and Plantations Muslimin Nasution urged
\nthe World Bank to announce which projects in his ministry had had
\nleakages.<\/p>\n
\"I think the World Bank should be more specific as to which
\nprojects were affected by corruption and to what extent, so that
\nwe can take the appropriate steps.<\/p>\n
\"If the World Bank lets the issue linger based on such a
\ngeneral, open-ended report, our image in the international
\ncommunity will be damaged,\" Muslimin added.<\/p>\n
Muslimin admitted some leakage of World Bank funds but argued
\nthe amount could not have been as large as the internal
\nmemorandum stated.<\/p>\n
\"I don't deny the problems (of corruption in the ministry)...
\nbut the 20 percent figure is a big question mark. How could they
\nhave come up with that figure?\"<\/p>\n
He said he had sent a report to Hartarto indicating which
\nprojects in the ministry had been financed by the World Bank.<\/p>\n
The Kerinci Seblat National Park project in Sumatra is the
\nbiggest project financed by World Bank funds, he said, adding
\nthat the bank had provided $30 million to the endeavor.<\/p>\n
Latest reports put World Bank loan disbursements in Indonesia
\nas of July, 1997, at about $11 billion. (gis)<\/p>",
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