Follow up on BPK report urged

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.