Candidates say audit agency politicized, use smear tactics
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Campaign team managers have accused the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) of launching a smear campaign against their respective presidential candidates by alleging that they had failed to keep their offices and ministries free from corruption when they were Cabinet ministers.
The BPK in its audit report on the 2002 State Budget has revealed various irregularities in the Office of the Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs, and in the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
Rahmat Witoelar, a Susilo campaign team manager, said the report was part of a systematic attempt to discredit Susilo and prevent him from sweeping into the Presidential Palace.
"We should look at it proportionally ... The irregularities reported by the BPK are not that large compared to other irregularities, such as the Pertamina tanker sale. I think this is more politically motivated," said Rahmat.
Susilo was coordinating minister for political and security affairs before he resigned in March to run for the presidency.
"Susilo is not an angel. In every state agency, there are always bad apples but this does not mean that Susilo is part of that crop. The occurrence of irregularities cannot be construed as a failure on the part of Susilo to contain them," he said.
Susilo, with his running mate Jusuf Kalla, has been nominated by the Democratic Party, which garnered around 7.5 percent of the vote in the April 5 legislative election.
Rahmat said the Susilo campaign team would not decide on what action it would take until such time as it received the BPK report.
The BPK's audit report on the realization of the 2002 State Budget revealed various irregularities that cost more than Rp 26 billion (about US$2.86 million) in the Office of the Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs.
According to the report, most of the money, around Rp 24.3 billion, was not properly accounted for as the office failed to provide details in its balance sheet for 2002 State Budget expenditure.
Also highlighted by the BPK was the use of some Rp 1.58 billion in funds for an overseas trip by several high-ranking officials from the office, none of which was accounted for, including an allocation of Rp 226 million for three people who were not part of the travel party.
The report also stated that vice presidential candidate Gen. (ret) Agum Gumelar, the running mate of Hamzah Haz, appeared to be responsible for irregularities in the use of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications' 2002 State Budget allocation.
The BPK found irregularities in the use of over Rp 300 billion in state funds in 2002, spent mostly on 12 infrastructure projects promoted by the ministry.
The BPK also found that some Rp 161.13 billion in state assets and some Rp 59.9 billion in state revenues from non-tax sources were not reported by the ministry.
Azrul Azwar, a member of the Hamzah-Agum campaign team, claimed the report was part of a "dirty tricks" campaign launched by Hamzah's opponents.
"This is part of a smear campaign against Hamzah and Agum. But, we will not take action regarding the report as this is all about politics," said Azrul.
Hamzah and Agum are running in the presidential action under the United Development Party banner.