City official defends principal over graft
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The city administration defended on Wednesday the principal of state 232 Junior High School in Pulogadung, East Jakarta, who had used a scholarship fund for his students to buy electronic goods and furniture.
"I think the principal (Tri Jumena) had his own reasons for using the money to buy those goods. Moreover, the decision had been approved by the school committee," said head of the City Elementary and Secondary Education Agency Sylviana Murni.
Sylviana was referring to the findings of City Council Commission E for education, health and people's welfare that SMP 232 had spent part of a Rp 131.67 million (US$14,555) scholarship fund to buy electronic goods and furniture.
Commission E chairman Dani Anwar said the Rp 131.67 million scholarship fund was allocated from the city's 2004 budget to provide scholarships for the school's 798 students.
Each student was to receive Rp 27,500 per month over a period of six months.
But the school only allocated a scholarship fund for 82 students in the school, while the remainder of the money was used to buy air-conditioners and television sets, chairs and tables, and photocopy machines, as well as to repair the doors of seven school toilets.
According to Dani, a television set, air-conditioner and furniture was placed in the principal's room.
He said the city allocated some Rp 35.98 billion in block grants for 218,091 students of city-owned junior high schools last year.
Sylviana did not say whether the scholarship fund could be used to purchase school equipment or not as she had yet to study existing technical guidelines on the use of the fund.
According to Sylviana, a change in the use of the scholarship fund may occur "if the existing regulations open up such a possibility."
Dani, however, stressed that Technical Guideline No. 288/2004 on the spending of block grants, which was issued by the City Elementary and Secondary Education Agency, did not permit the use the scholarship fund to buy school facilities.
"I think it is clear that the fund is only to be used to subsidize the students' education. I do not understand how purchasing television sets and air-conditioners can be interpreted as part of the learning experience," he added.
Dani said Commission E would summon the SMP 232 principal and Sylviana to seek clarification on the issue. He did not say when the commission would summon the two.
He added that the commission would visit several other schools to check whether they had also used scholarship funds to buy school equipment.
According to Sylviana, he had met with Tri Jumena and told him prepare all the documents regarding the use of block grants.
She said that she may revise the current technical guidelines on the use of block grants so that there would be no misinterpretation by schoolmasters.
"The findings of Commission E is a good lesson for us. We may revise the regulation so that there will be no misinterpretation in the future," she added.