Papua, Aceh scrutinized over budget misuses<\/p>\n
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The government has set up a team to probe alleged budget misuse
\nby two resource-rich, autonomous provinces, Papua and Aceh, a
\nsenior cabinet minister said.<\/p>\n
Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs
\nSusilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Thursday that the team would be
\nled by Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno in close
\ncoordination with the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP).<\/p>\n
He, nevertheless, failed to disclose when the team would carry
\nout its investigation.<\/p>\n
According to Susilo, the government has received information
\nabout alleged misappropriation of budgets allocated to Papua and
\nAceh.<\/p>\n
"The move is an attempt to prevent abuses which may affect
\nlocal administrations when they carry out their daily duties.<\/p>\n
"Nevertheless, we want the public to respect the principle of
\nthe presumption of innocence during the investigation. If we find
\nout that the allegations are true, we will not hesitate to impose
\nstern sanctions against them," Susilo said after holding a
\nmeeting on political and security issues on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Also present in the meeting, held to evaluate the performance
\nof the Aceh and Papua administrations, were Indonesian Military
\nCommander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto, National Police chief Gen.
\nDa'i Bachtiar, and Hari Sabarno.<\/p>\n
Under special autonomy arrangements, the two provinces were
\ngiven the authority to draw up plans on how to spend their
\nrespective budgets while taking into account the needs of locals.<\/p>\n
The two provinces have submitted their 2003 budgets with
\nprograms to the central government, but Susilo said "the
\ngovernment needs to clarify whether budgets have been channeled
\ninto appropriate programs."<\/p>\n
During the 2002 fiscal year, Aceh received Rp 2.2 trillion
\nfrom the general allocation fund, and another Rp 1.87 trillion
\nfrom the profit sharing of oil and gas revenue.<\/p>\n
For the 2003 fiscal year, the province will get a total of Rp
\n2.3 trillion from the general allocation fund, while the profit
\nsharing will revolve around last year's figure.<\/p>\n
Papua, on the other hand, received a total of Rp 1.3 trillion
\nfrom the general allocation fund in 2002. That amount went up to
\nRp 1.5 trillion in 2003.<\/p>\n
In addition, the province got Rp 663 billion from profit
\nsharing from oil and gas revenue in 2002 and about the same
\namount in 2003.<\/p>\n
Asked whether the central government was suspicious that Papua
\nand Aceh administrations had disbursed some funds to separatist
\nmovements there, Susilo said: "I'm not going into details. But
\nmisuse could vary from their failure to account for their
\nspending to possible disbursement to rebellion groups."<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/papua-aceh-scrutinized-over-budget-misuses-1447893297",
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