City Hall probes irregularities causing losses of Rp 139.32b

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration team is investigating irregularities in the implementation of various development projects, which have caused losses amounting to about Rp 139.32 billion, Deputy Governor for Administrative Affairs Abdul Kahfi said on Tuesday.

Kahfi said officials of the city administration and the Ministry of Home Affairs would meet this week to discuss irregularities in the cases.

He said the meeting, which would also be attended by officials of the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP), was intended mainly to crosscheck reports of malpractice from the past three years.

"As soon as we finish the investigation we will not hesitate to punish those who are involved," Kahfi said, adding that such punitive action was needed to uphold a clean government.

Information about the losses was first revealed by city secretary Fauzi Bowo in a meeting with members of the House of Representatives last month.

Fauzi quoted BPKP's report as showing that the Rp 131.69 billion losses were incurred in 2,735 cases of corruption.

Of these, 829 cases were uncovered by BPKP in the 1996/1997 fiscal year with losses amounting to Rp 50.28 billion, 1,082 cases in 1997/98 with losses of Rp 50.97 billion and 824 cases in the 1998/1999 fiscal year with Rp 30.44 billion in losses, the report said.

These instances were categorized as "not yet solved" cases. Total losses from graft actually reached Rp 143.69 billion, but about Rp 12 billion of this could be salvaged.

Besides the rampant misappropriation of funds, BPKP also uncovered inefficiency and neglect in many projects, which were fully financed by the city administration.

Inefficiency caused losses amounting to Rp 7.22 billion from 21 projects, while neglect caused losses of another Rp 408.93 million.

Head of the inspectorate Sutardjianto said that the inefficient and neglected projects included the construction of school buildings and bridges and the rehabilitation of canals.

"There were also cases which showed that certain newly built facilities collapsed after only months," he said.

However, Sutardjianto refused to give further information about those involved in the projects or the location of the instances of corruption.

"Let's wait until the meeting (between the administration and the ministry) is completed," he said. (ind)