Finance officials must be diligent

Finance officials must be diligent

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad urged his
office staff yesterday to be more focused on the public interest
and to guard against waste and inefficiency.

"The public interest should have our greatest attention and be
our main concern," Mar'ie said during a speech delivered at a
ceremony commemorating Indonesia's 49th Monetary Day.

He said mismanagement in the monetary sector would
disadvantage the country by resulting in a lack of public
facilities and other obstacles to growth.

In the banking and financial sectors, he said, losses and
waste would result in a high-cost economy, hindering national
development efforts.

"High costs will affect the efforts to increase national
productivity and development," he said.

Mar'ie said the government's current tight monetary and fiscal
policies have helped to boost national development and, in turn,
increased state revenues from tax receipts.

"Cutting back on routine expenditures has helped to increase
government savings. This has significantly reduced the dependency
on foreign loans," he said.

At the ceremony, Mar'ie presented the Satyalencana Karya Satya
service award from President Soeharto to 923 current and retired
officials of the Ministry of Finance. He also presented
certificates of merit from the ministry to 520 retirees.

Among those who received the Satyalencana Karya Satya award
were Director General of Customs and Excise Soehardjo and
Director General of Tax Fuad Bawazier. (kod/pwn)