Alleged Billions in Honorarium Fraud at Kukar Education Office Demands Transparent Investigation

The internal resolution of alleged honorarium receipts worth billions of rupiah by 71 contract employees at the Kutai Kartanegara (Kukar) Education and Culture Office (Disdikbud) is considered insufficient to ensure the matter is truly settled. Such a step also does not guarantee that similar cases will not recur if the root of the problem within the system is not revealed.

Buyung Maroja, Coordinator of the East Kalimantan Working Group 30, stated that internal handling must be accompanied by a thorough investigation, the results of which should be conveyed to the public. According to him, transparency is key to restoring public trust while ensuring that irregularities can be fully uncovered.

"There must be a comprehensive investigation and the results must be published. If it is only an internal resolution, that is no guarantee it will not be repeated," Buyung said via a written statement on Tuesday (30/6). The statement was in response to the Kutai Kartanegara Regency Government’s move, which mentioned that identification of the alleged honorarium payments to 71 contract employees had been carried out and was being resolved through an internal mechanism.

Buyung assessed that there are two possible causes for the alleged irregularities. First, there is a problem with a system that is not yet integrated, creating room for errors in the honorarium payment process. Second, there are gaps or blind spots in the system that can be exploited by certain parties to engage in malicious conspiracy or corrupt practices.

According to him, neither of these possibilities can be concluded without a comprehensive investigation process. The examination must also be able to reveal whether the alleged budget leakage only occurred in this case or has been ongoing in previous periods. "The important thing is the investigation; perhaps there have been leakages like this before," he said.

He stressed that a thorough investigation aims not only to uncover the responsible parties but also to find system weaknesses so they can be promptly rectified. Thus, the local government has a strong basis to close loopholes for irregularities and prevent similar cases from recurring in the future.