Audit agency attempts to recover trillions
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Ministry of Agriculture has accounted for Rp 125 million following its settlement of 35 financial-related irregularities valued at Rp 14.99 billion discovered by the State Audit Agency (BPK) in its 1999 and 2000 reports.
The ministry is one of eight which made public their findings on Tuesday in order to settle a total of 1,643 cases of irregularities amounting to Rp 3.2 trillion in potential losses.
The other ministries, which are among the first batch to complete reports for the office of the state ministry of administrative reform, included the ministry of defense, finance, national education, foreign affairs, energy and mineral resources, transportation, and the ministry of resettlement and regional infrastructure.
State Minister of Administrative Reforms Feisal Tamin, whose office supervises the ministries' efforts, told reporters at his office that the ministries' reports had been reported and endorsed by BPK.
He also said that most of the cases were inherited from past administrations but were still recorded in each of their reports to the audit agency because the cases were still pending.
"Now we want to make sure of transparency and clarification of each of our efforts to create a good and clean form of governance," he added.
During the media briefing, Ministry of Agriculture Inspectorate General A.H. Rahadian said that his office has also taken severe action against a total of 42 staffers implicated in various budget abuses.
Ministry of National Education Inspectorate General Muljani A. Nurhadi claimed the office had recovered two-thirds of the Rp 8.64 billion in losses to the state.
"The BPK discovered Rp 66 billion in possible losses, but the existing misuse of the budget was Rp 8.64 billion. We have returned Rp 5.73 billion of it and are still working to settle the rest of the cases," he said.
The ministry has also handed down severe punishments, including dismissals to 156 staffers for violating regulations on civil employment and also for implications in the misuse of the state budget.
In its regular report last year, BPK revealed irregularities and abuses with the state budget which were projected to bring the total loss to Rp 3.2 trillion. The amount was derived from the disappearance of Rp 1.4 trillion from regional budgets, Rp 1.2 trillion from state-owned enterprises, Rp 608 billion from the state budget and another Rp 1 billion found to be missing from the Treasury Endowment Body (BPH).
Most of the cases reportedly stem from administrative disorder, unrealistic project targets and cases that are related to an inefficient use of the budget.
Ministry of Defense Inspectorate General Lt. Gen. Suharto said that the ministry has identified most of the Rp 46.91 billion of potential losses.
"We are still monitoring the use of Rp 3.85 billion at the National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas) to finance the students' official travel and of Rp 1.32 billion at the ministry's human resource affairs office which is used to provide accommodations for the civil security guards (Kamra) in troubled provinces," he said.
Ministry of Finance Inspectorate General Agus Haryanto claimed the office had resolved the cases which may have caused Rp 13.34 billion in losses and was still working on the remaining six cases with potential losses of Rp 2.33 billion.