Audit body discloses corruption in city firms
Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
City auditing head Hendarin Ono Saleh revealed on Tuesday that his office had identified 22 financial irregularities that had caused the administration losses of Rp 179.53 billion (US$17.9 million) last year.
"We recommend that city officials involved in the irregularities be dismissed," Hendarin said, without mentioning the names of the officials.
Speaking at a hearing with City Council Commission C for budgetary affairs, he promised to bring the cases to court.
He submitted to the council a list of the cases for the governor's accountability speech on the 2001 City Budget.
The amount of losses are small if compared with the 2001 City Budget, which suffered losses of Rp 8.3 trillion. But it was a sharp increase on losses suffered by the city administration two years ago.
The audit body (formerly called the City Inspectorate) found 69 cases of corruption, which inflicted losses to the city of Rp 42 billion in 2000. Only Rp 5 billion of the losses could be retracted. None of the officials involved in the cases have been taken to court.
According to the list presented on Tuesday, city owned property operator BPL Sunter, which cooperates with private developers in managing areas in North Jakarta, had not paid their taxes and had failed to fulfill their obligation in building public facilities. These violations inflicted losses to the city administration of Rp 178 billion.
The audit agency also disclosed irregularities amounting to Rp 312 million in the City Parking Agency (BP Parkir) last year. Some Rp 72 million was used by the agency's Dharma Wanita (organization of civil servants' wives) and Rp 34 million was spent for personal purposes.
Several city agencies and offices, such as the city protocol office, the city housing agency, misused funds of between Rp 1 million and Rp 26.9 million last year.
However, the city administration managed to retract some Rp 778 million of these losses.
Hendarin said the administration also suffered losses of Rp 305 million because many patients in state Pasar Rebo Hospital in East Jakarta had yet to pay their medical bills.
"If the council agrees, we could write off the unpaid bills because most of the patients were poor," he told the hearing.
City Councillor FX Marsiadi urged the city administration to handle the cases seriously, saying that he would bring forward the issue during the deliberation of Sutiyoso's accountability speech on Thursday.
"The administration should have the guts to bring the cases to court if there is any indication of corruption," Marsiadi, of the Indonesian Military (TNI)/Police faction, said in the hearing.
He said the governor should also punish officials found violating administrative procedures.
The Jakarta Prosecutors' Office is slated to summon Sutiyoso for questioning about the controversial overseas trip made by several councillors and city officials. The trip to Japan, Korea and Australia in October 2000 was financed by the city budget and public/private developer Pembangunan Jaya Ancol.