Agency uncovers more than 220 corruption cases

Agency uncovers more than 220 corruption cases

JAKARTA (JP): The Government Audit Agency (BPKP) has uncovered 223 corruption cases over the past five years, causing losses of over Rp 237.88 billion (US$110.64 million) to the state.

BPKP chairman Soedarjono told a hearing with the Budgetary Commission of the House of Representatives (DPR) yesterday that most of the corruption cases have in fact been brought to court, but that only 44 of them had been settled.

"The greatest fraud cases took place in the banking sector, bringing in losses of over Rp 100.01 billion ($46.51 million)," he said.

He said that the government suffered losses of Rp 40.29 billion due to malfeasance and other irregularities in the procurement of goods and services and another Rp 51.80 billion due to the manipulation of state receipts.

Commission members, however, considered the agency's corruption findings as being too small, given the difficult task of accurately calculating the toll of corruption practices that plague most government offices and state-owned companies.

S.G.B. Tampubolon of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) said that the government has failed in its attempts to eradicate corruption, in part due a failing audit agency and a poor system of state budget implementation.

"Nobody can correctly audit state money under the existing procedures of the state budget," he said.

Tampubolon, also a professional accountant, said that the system in the government budget, which states only broad projections of spending and revenues, should therefore be revised.

Under the state budget procedures, malfeasance and other irregularities are difficult to control since spending projections are not specifically set in the budget plan.

"How can we audit the budget if we don't know details of the project items to be financed," he said.

Independency

Sri Bintang Pamungkas of the United Development Party (PPP) also questioned the independency of the audit agency, especially when dealing with high-ranking officials.

The agency, according to Bintang, tends to focus its activities only on small-scale corruption, leaving most of the significant fraud cases untouched.

"We never heard BPKP report on the deal between Pertamina and Sempati or the controversial sales of Garuda's eight aircraft," Bintang said.

Bintang added that Sempati, a private airline company, has not paid up their purchase of fuel from the state-owned oil firm Pertamina since 1990.

Bintang also questioned the state-owned airline Garuda and their sale of eight airplanes to a private company which, in return, now plans to lease them to Garuda's sister airline company Merpati.

"What a deal... why can't Merpati rent the aircraft directly from Garuda," he said.

Soedarjono, the chairman of the audit agency, however, did not have any answers for those two sensitive questions. (hen)