Aceh administrator wants audit conducted

Aceh administrator wants audit conducted

Nani Afrida, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh

The acting civil emergency administrator in Aceh has asked the
Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to verify reports of
malfeasance in the use of Rp 6 trillion (US$6.8 billion) in state
funds allocated for the first six months of the state of civil
emergency in the province.

Acting Civil Emergency Administrator Insp. Gen. Bachrumsyah
Kasman said each of the officials in charge of monitoring the
implementation of the integrated operations had conducted
internal audits on the use of the funds.

"But to prevent people from being suspicious, I want the KPK
to verify the audit findings," he said on Friday.

He said he would not hesitate to bring to justice any
officials who were found to have misused the state funds.

Human rights group Imparsial reported that the military
operation alone had cost the state not less than Rp 3 trillion
since martial law was imposed in Aceh in May last year.

Bachrumsyah would not say whether the KPK auditors would come
to Aceh to conduct their investigations, but promised that "the
audit will take place in a very near future."

He was appointed the acting civil emergency administrator by
the government of former president Megawati Soekarnoputri after
the KPK named Governor Abdullah Puteh a suspect for inflating the
budget for the procurement of a Russian-made helicopter in 2002.
The governor is slated to go on trial in the Anticorruption Court
in December.

As the civil emergency administrator, Bahrumsyah is
responsible for synchronizing the disbursement of state funds to
finance the integrated operations in the province and for
supervising the implementation of the operations to restore
security, enforce the law, provide humanitarian assistance, boost
economic recovery and strengthen local government.

For the law enforcement operation alone, Bachrumsyah said the
province received Rp 6 billion every month from National Police
Headquarters.

The Aceh Police are currently handling 38 corruption cases
that implicate government officials at the provincial, regental
and municipality levels.

His administration also receives funds from Indonesian
Military (TNI) headquarters for the law enforcement operation,
but he said that some of this money was also used for the
security operation.

"Well, you know, the soldiers and police personnel in the
field would shoot us if we deducted a penny from their daily
allowances," he said.

After one year of martial law, the government reduced the
emergency status of the province to a state of civil emergency on
May 19 on the grounds that the security condition there had
greatly improved.

Despite this, the security operation to crush the insurgency
in the province was continuing.

Bachrumsyah said that Free Aceh Movement (GAM) insurgents
remained a threat as they still numbered between 2,500 and 3,000,
and were equipped with 800 firearms.