Follow up on BPK report urged
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Activists have called on the City Audit Agency (Bawasda) and the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office to follow up on a report by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) concerning irregularities at six city administration agencies amounting to Rp 70.41 billion (US$8.38 million).
Tubagus Haryokarbianto of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) told The Jakarta Post on Saturday that both institutions must pay extra attention to the report to learn the extent of wrongdoing in the agencies.
"If there's no follow up on the report, it would be totally useless. There won't be any impact on the effort to eradicate collusion, corruption and collusion," said Tubagus, an LBH executive who deals with urban affairs.
Jakarta Residents Forum (Fakta) chairman Azas Tigor Nainggolan said the report could be used as preliminary evidence of alleged corruption by administration officials.
"If there's no follow up on the report, it confirms public allegations that they (the agency and the prosecutors) have no political will to fight corruption," Tigor told the Post, adding that taxpayers could sue both institutions if they ignored the report.
"Why should BPK audit those agencies every year if the report only becomes a toothless document? It definitely means nothing in the effort to fight corruption. BPK's work only wastes taxpayers' money," he said.
BPK revealed on Friday in its annual report that it found 58 cases of irregularities in the six agencies in the 2002 fiscal year and the first semester of 2003.
Irregularities were found at the City Sanitation Agency (Rp 989.07 million), the City Mining Agency (Rp 13.4 billion), the City Building Layout and Supervision Agency (Rp 1.02 billion), the City Transportation Agency (Rp 6.9 billion), the City Planning Agency (Rp 37.2 billion) and the City Parking Agency (Rp 10.9 billion).
Tubagus said that Bawasda could investigate the matter by grouping the irregularities into at least two categories: irregularities apparently related to embezzlement and irregularities due to official's ignorance or other reasons.
For irregularities related to criminal aspects, Tubagus said the prosecutor's office could follow up the matter to find out which administration officials enriched themselves through collusion with private companies appointed to carry out projects.
As for irregularities caused by ignorance, the matter could be resolved by imposing administrative sanctions on officials involved in any irregular activities.
But agency head Firman Hutajulu said earlier that the BPK report did not necessarily mean that embezzlement had taken place.
Tigor said that Firman's statement indicated that he wanted to protect officials in the administration related to the BPK report.
"If they really don't follow up on the report, then they must condone corruption and collusion. In which case we must facilitate the public in suing the institutions for ignoring irregularities in the use of public funds," he said.