Audit report indicates massive corruption at KPU
Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The report on an investigative audit conducted by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) indicates deep-rooted corruption at the General Elections Commission (KPU), with all activities related to the procurement of materials for last year's general election apparently tainted with irregularities.
The audit report, submitted by the agency to the House of Representatives on Thursday, indicated malfeasance involving more than Rp 90 billion (US$9.47 million) in taxpayers' money by KPU officials.
The report, which has been seen by The Jakarta Post, reveals collusion, data manipulation, document forgery and price markups by the KPU in connection with the more than Rp 800.48 billion it spent on ballot boxes, ballot papers, ink, and information and technology infrastructure.
It is likely that this is just the tip of the iceberg as the report only covers the funds given to the KPU for the legislative election. The KPU was allotted a whooping Rp 4 trillion to hold consecutive legislative and presidential elections, as well as a runoff in the presidential election.
The BPK is conducting two more audits -- on financial aspects of the legislative poll and financial aspects of the presidential poll -- as well as another audit on 16 provincial KPUs and 48 regental KPUs, which controlled many more trillions of rupiah.
The BPK audit report should give a boost to the Corruption Eradication Commission's (KPK) efforts to uncover corruption at the KPU, seen as much needed concrete evidence of the seriousness of the government's war on graft.
According to the report, the procurement of ballot boxes, which was overseen by Mulyana W. Kusumah and Chusnul Mar'iyah, resulted in a staggering Rp 66.06 billion loss to the taxpayer as a result of such things as the marking up of the price of ballot boxes, manipulated ballot box specifications and marked-up distribution costs.
The BPK also suspects a conspiracy to ensure that particular firms obtained tenders in return for kickbacks.
The BPK found indications that the prices of some 251.29 million ballot papers were inflated by between 10 percent and 15 percent.
The BPK also suspects data manipulation involving the inflating of the number of ballots that were printed by 36.9 million more than required under the General Elections Law (No. 12/2003) and a KPU ruling dated Feb. 18, 2004.
The BPK believes that these two cases cost the taxpayer about Rp 12.62 billion.
As regards the procurement of ink, which was overseen by Rusadi Kantaprawira, the BPK found that there were indications of malfeasance as the KPU used the average offered price as the price for both imported and local ink.
The BPK findings also include the extending of an exemption from import duty to two KPU suppliers, and invoice forgery to allow the embezzling of import duties and taxes by another supplier. The BPK says that graft involving the procurement of ink cost the state Rp 4.39 billion.
On information and technology infrastructure, which was the responsibility of Chusnul, the BPK alleges the inflating of costs at the Data Recovery Center by Rp 154.09 million.
Regarding the procurement of ballot envelopes, which was managed by Daan Dimara, there were indications of the direct appointment of firms tasked with printing the envelopes. The KPU team also allegedly increased its self-estimated price by slapping multiple surcharges on a number of cost components, causing the state to lose Rp 7.06 billion.
KPU chairman Nazarudin Syamsuddin, deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti and commission member Chusnul failed to answer or return calls from the Post on Friday. They had all previously either denied being involved in graft or refused to comment.