BPK slams govt over corruption

BPK slams govt over corruption

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) blasted again on Thursday the
government's lackluster efforts in combating corruption, saying
most of the suspected corruption cases discovered by the agency
have been ignored.

BPK's chairman Satrio B. Judono said the agency had reported a
total of 6,162 suspected corruption cases since 2001 to the
Attorney General's Office and the National Police.

However, only 505 cases or just over 8 percent of the total
had been investigated by both law enforcement agencies, Satrio
said.

"As I have repeatedly said, they (the government) lack quite a
lot of accountability," said Judono on the sidelines of a plenary
session with the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

In terms of value, the 6,162 corruption cases had the
potential of causing state losses of Rp 2.05 trillion (US$242
million), while by handling the 505 cases, the government is
likely to regain Rp 24.4 billion or a little more than 1 percent
of the potential losses, according Satrio.

The small number of cases actually acted upon by the
government serve as more evidence that the country's half-hearted
efforts to stamp out graft and corruption have again proven
fruitless.

Since the start of the reform era in 1998 -- which was marked
by the downfall of the corrupt regime of former president
Soeharto -- successive administrations, including the current
administration of President Megawati Soekarnoputri, pledged to
eradicate corruption in the country.

However, most analysts agree that corruption remains as
rampant as it was during former President Soeharto's
administration.

During the plenary session, BPK revealed that in the first
half of this year it managed to discover 87 cases of corruption
worth Rp 1.94 billion in the use of 2003 state budget; 369 cases
worth Rp 6.25 billion in the use of budgets by regional
governments and regionally owned enterprises; and 117 cases worth
Rp 7.79 billion in state-owned enterprises.

The size of all of the budgets audited by the agency during
the period totaled Rp 5.09 trillion.

The agency also reported that it had discovered 174 cases of
irregularities between January and June this year, which
potentially caused a total of Rp 233 billion (US$27.7 million) in
losses to the state.

Most of the irregularities were in the category of "deviations
from law", totaling 121 cases worth Rp 131.5 billion, followed by
"cases of failure to comply with austerity and efficiency", which
totaled 30 cases worth Rp 57.5 trillion.

In third place was "deviations from a set of objects" which
totaled 23 cases worth Rp 44.1 billion.

Elsewhere, the agency also called the 2002 Bank Indonesia
balance sheet "satisfactory, but with some exceptions" because of
the alleged misuse of Rp 20.9 trillion in state funds stashed in
government account number 502.

The 502 funds were originally allocated to cover the financial
obligations of closed banks as part of the government's blanket
guarantee program.