BPK head calls for coordination
Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) chairman Anwar Nasution has called for better coordination among law enforcement and legal institutions in a bid to make the antigraft drive more effective.
Anwar said that the institutions, including the National Police, the Attorney General's Office (AGO), the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), and the BPK had to give up engaging in what he described as "civil war" among themselves if the efforts to curb corruption were to bear fruit.
"We need strong coordination, especially as we have a limited number of professional investigators, if we want to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in carrying out our duties," he said on Monday at the opening of a week-long workshop to devise strategies to curb rampant corruption.
The opening ceremony was attended by National Police chief Gen. Sutanto, KPK chairman Taufiqurrahman Ruki and a deputy to the attorney general for special crimes, Hendarman Supanji.
Attorney General Abdurrahman Saleh failed to show up at the workshop, something that was described by a BPK official as reflecting the poor coordination between law enforcement and legal institutions in the fight against graft.
Anwar conceded that the slow progress achieved to date in the fight against corruption, and the fact that many corruption suspects had managed to flee the country, had a lot to do with weak coordination among law officers and the shortage of professional investigators.
Anwar said that in a bid to help resolve human resources problems, his office had employed a number of professional investigators from overseas to train local investigators.
Elsewhere, he said that despite the lack investigators, and a frequent lack of support from other law agencies and institutions, the BPK had started to conduct investigative audits and fraud audits in selected state-owned enterprises and state institutions.
Anwar said that these two forms of audit were quite effective in providing a comprehensive picture of financial irregularities and misfeasance.
"The BPK is implementing the new audit system as part of our investigations into corruption in the Ministry of Health, Pertamina, PT PLN and the distribution of compensation funds to the poor. The audit reports have been completed and will shortly be handed over to the House of Representatives," he said.
In the past, the BPK's audits largely focused on the accounts of the bodies being audited.