Audit agency should be empowered: Activists

Audit agency should be empowered: Activists

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Anti-corruption activists say widespread corruption in
procurements of goods and services in most units of the city
administration cannot be stopped due to the alleged involvement
of the City Audit Agency (Bawasda).

They say officials at the agency are not obliged to disclose
their findings on irregularities on certain procurements.
Therefore, according to the activists, they often compromise with
officials of the working units over their findings.

Chairman of Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) Teten Masduki
said on Thursday that empowering the agency could be the starting
point to end corruption.

"The City Audit Agency should be independent and not be a sub-
ordinate of the governor. Its members should be elected by the
City Council, not be appointed by the governor," Teten told The
Jakarta Post.

Teten was commenting on corruption in the procurement of goods
and services in the city administration, where the value of
corrupted funds could amount to as much as 35 percent of the
total allocated funds.

Procurement in the city administration involves a large amount
of money. It is estimated to account for Rp 2.2 trillion of the
city's Rp 5.7 trillion routine spending in 2002.

Teten also stressed that the findings of irregularities by the
City Audit Agency needed to be made transparent. He said the
agency should be obliged to announce their findings to the
public.

Besides empowering the auditing agency, the city
administration should improve its bureaucratic system, which
remains vulnerable to corruption.

Marco Kusumawijaya, an urban observer, shared Teten's opinion,
saying the city administration's current internal auditing was
part of the problem, because he alleged that most of the auditors
were corrupt.

"As a taxpayer, I am disappointed that my money is badly spent
by officials. Therefore, the auditing process should be improved
by inviting people who are credible and possess some integrity to
work at the audit agency," he told the Post.

He also said the administration should involve the public as
taxpayers should also help supervise the procurement of goods and
services, by inviting their representatives to become members of
the tender committee.

He said that in many countries, taxpayers play a significant
role in controlling government spending and complain to the
government if the money is spent improperly.

"I think we should encourage public participation in
controlling the government's spending, because if it works well,
it will be a significant move against corruption," said Marco,
who is a gubernatorial candidate.