Bulog has lost 'only' Rp 420b, not Rp 2.6t, Widjanarko says
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Chief of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) Widjanarko Puspojo admitted on Wednesday the misappropriation of funds belonging to his office, but said the amount was less than Rp 420 billion.
Speaking in an unprecedented interview since Bulog came under spotlight in the past few months, Widjanarko said the funds were part of Bulog off-balance revenues derived from, among others, the interest on Bulog's deposits, and the management fees obtained by the agency when it served as the sole agent of imported groundnuts, sugar, cooking oil, soybeans, and wheat until June 2000.
"In the early days, such operating funds were legal ... the problem nowadays is that the use of the funds has not at all been related to Bulog's interests but instead has gone to private institutions and individuals.
"Almost all of the respected individuals (in the country) came to Bulog asking for charity," he told The Jakarta Post and Koran Tempo. He declined to identify the persons for fear that "the information may shock the nation".
Former president Abdurrahman Wahid, two former Bulog chiefs, Beddu Amang and Rahardi Ramelan, former minister/state secretary Akbar Tandjung and a son of president Soeharto, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, were linked to the misuse of the funds. Except for Abdurrahman, the others were brought to trial.
Earlier reports claimed the Bulog funds misappropriated reached Rp 2.1 trillion. The Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP) revealed in its report issued in May 2000 that the funds were part of Bulog revenues collected between 1994 and 1998.
A team of House of Representatives Commission III legislators, led by Widjanarko, followed up the report and confirmed the misused funds.
Widjanarko, who was installed as the Bulog chief last year, said on Wednesday Rp 1.3 trillion of the amount was the subsidy funds for wheat flour belonging to the directorate of budgetary affairs of the ministry of finance which was mistakenly included in the report submitted to the BPKP.
Of the remaining Rp 800 billion, some Rp 383 billion had been moved to Bulog's balance sheet, he added.
Widjanarko, who prefers the term of off-balance sheet funds for Bulog's non-budgetary money, revealed that the funds collected since the agency was built in 1977 were used as its operating funds which could be disbursed only by a memo from the chief.
It was only in 1995 that the government began to allocate an amount in the state budget to pay the salaries of Bulog employees. Bulog, however, has to take commercial credits amounting to Rp 8.4 trillion annually to import rice that will be used to secure the national supply.
Bulog earns revenues mostly from the price margin of the rice sales, although it is not enough to repay the credits.
"Could you imagine our financial burden if we have to provide Rp 2 billion for the credit's interest every day," he said,
The government revoked in 1999 a policy that allowed state institutions to raise extra-budgetary funds.
In Bulog, the off-balance funds could reach around Rp 400 billion each year.
President Megawati Soekarnoputri has decided to change the status of Bulog, which is currently only tasked with importing rice, into a profitable state-owned enterprise to be called Perum Pangan starting May 2003.
Widjanarko added that the agency is now endeavoring to retrieve bad credits which were extended to, among others, the Indonesian Distribution Cooperatives (Rp 320 billion) and businessman Hokiarto (Rp 32.5 billion).
"And if what Winfried (Simatupang) said was true that Rp 40 billion he held was a loan from Bulog, then the money should be returned," he said, referring to a codefendant in the graft case involving Akbar.