Accountants refuse KPU's job

Accountants refuse KPU's job

Suherdjoko, The Jakarta Post, Semarang

Noted public accountants have reportedly refused to audit
campaign funds of political parties, a member of the General
Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu), Didik Supriyanto, said
on Saturday.

He said the auditors were concerned about possible questions
from Panwaslu, the General Election Commission (KPU) and non-
governmental organizations.

"As you can see, there are still no reputable public
accountants appointed by the KPU to audit the parties' accounts,"
he said.

He said, so far, none of the 24 political parties contesting
the April 5 general elections had reported the use of funds
during the three-week campaign period between March 11 and April
1.

Citing Article 79 of Election Law No. 12/2003, Didik said the
political parties are given 97 days after the election day on
April 5 to get their campaign funds audited by public
accountants.

During the first 60 days, parties must present reports of all
of their campaign funds to auditors that later hand them over to
the KPU.

"But the long time given to the political parties gives the
opportunity for manipulation of data," Didik said.

Under the law, parties are obliged to report their accounts
one week before the campaigning starts. But in fact, most of them
had ignored the regulation.

Didik said the Panwaslu has so far found no irregularities in
the use of party campaign funds.

"It is not because there are no parties that have reported
their election funds. Even if we are pro-active in finding
possible violations, it would be useless because they still have
no data," Didik said.

He said the Panwaslu was not asked by the KPU to work together
to enact regulations to control possible irregularities in
campaign funds by political parties. "But if there are
violations, we should follow it up," he complained.

According to the Indonesia Corruption Watchdog, parties
resorted to vote buying to lure supporters during the campaign
period.

It said the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P)
allocated Rp 100 billion (US$11.6 million) to finance its
campaign. Of that amount, Rp 1.89 billion was spent on
advertising. Golkar is said to have spent Rp 640 million on
advertising. Of the 24 parties contending the legislative
election, at least 11 had no funds for advertising.