BPK calls for concrete action to fight graft

JAKARTA (JP): The Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) has called on the government to take concrete action in preventing future financial irregularities in state finances.

BPK's chief, Satrio B. Judono, said on Friday, "What we are waiting for is concrete actions, not self-defense."

He said that the first step toward the eradication of corruption was acknowledgement that the irregularities had happened.

"If our report (of irregularities) is met with a self- defensive attitude, surely the steps taken to prevent future violations won't be significant," Judono said.

The report on BPK's audit of the 1999/2000 budget and the financial accounts of several state companies conducted in the first semester of this year discovered 1,933 instances of deviations from budgetary rules and irregularities in financial management, involving Rp 3.3 trillion (US$371 million).

The auditors also found irregularities involving over Rp 1 trillion in potential losses to the state.

The BPK report did not specifically allege corruption or embezzlement but implicitly divided the discrepancies into deviation from the law, noncompliance with austerity and efficiency, and deviation from a set of objectives.

BPK said that in 2000, the largest number of irregularities were found at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (32.82 percent), followed by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (31.27 percent).

On the revenue side, the Ministry of Health recorded the largest number of irregularities, followed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

The report was met with self defense in many of the ministries mentioned in the report.

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, where BPK found irregularities involving almost Rp 79 billion, had said that the BPK report was outdated as it did not include clarifications and corrections made at a follow-up meeting with BPK auditors.

According to Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro, projects under construction often cannot fully meet budgetary rules or procedures due to unexpected problems in the field, such as delays in the delivery of materials or equipment, or land acquisition.

However, Judono said that an audit leaves no room for tolerance and regardless of the reasons behind the aberrations or deviations from rules, such findings must be reported.

"We work under a zero tolerance policy, we are obligated to report to the public every irregularity that we find regardless of how small the amount or whether it inflict losses," he said.(tnt)