Audit agency needs more integrity: Candidates
Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta
As the selection process for new leaders of the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) nears completion, candidates say the agency needs a clearer and broader authority to more effectively combat state fund abuses.
"BPK, as a state audit agency, is supposed to be on the front line in making sure that state funds are properly spent. However, the agency has not yet been able to function in an effective manner," Baihaki Hakim said.
Baihaki, the former president of state oil and gas company Pertamina, was among the six candidates invited by the House of Representatives' Commission IX on financial affairs on Monday for an interview.
There are a total of 39 candidates proposed by the factions in the House to fill the seven positions on BPK's board. During the current round of screening, which will last through Wednesday, the Commission will select 21 of the 39 -- three candidates for each position -- to be proposed to President Megawati Soekarnoputri.
The law empowers the president to choose the final seven of the 21 proposed by the House to become the BPK board members. Those seven will choose among them a chairman and a deputy chairman.
The audit agency is tasked with examining the implementation of the state budget and the financial reports of state institutions. Given the crucial role played by the agency in combating corruption, expectations are high for the House and the government to select people with integrity.
Baihaki, who is considered by many a "clean" candidate, pointed out during the interview how, currently, the agency could not do much in curbing irregularities in the spending of budgets by the regional governments.
"Since the implementation of regional autonomy, for instance, we have heard so many times about local government officials becoming 'little kings'. Yet, BPK has no authority nor staff members in the provinces with adequate skills to investigate those cases," he added.
He thus urged the legislators to quickly endorse the draft law on BPK, which is now being deliberated by the government and the House. He said it would enable the agency to fight corruption.
Separately, another candidate Hasan Bisri, a member of the current BPK board, stressed the need to maintain and improve the agency's integrity by compensating them adequately.
The new BPK board should put a high priority on measures to improve the working standards of its agency's employees, he said.
"There has to be a reward-and-punishment system, which provides rewards for good auditors and punitive measures against auditors who misuse their power," he added.
The other four candidates taking part in the screening process were Mukrom As'ad (current BPK board member), Mustofadijaja (current BPK member), Abdullah Zaini (chairman of the House's Budget Commission) and Sulistiadi (a lawmaker from Commission IX).