'Govt not helpful in curbing nonbudgetary funds'

'Govt not helpful in curbing nonbudgetary funds'

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) said on Wednesday that it had
encountered obstacles while trying to audit corruption-prone
nonbudgetary funds worth trillions of rupiah, currently being
retained by several ministries and state agencies.

Deputy chairman of BPK Bambang Wahyudi told The Jakarta Post
that the government had refused to cooperate with BPK.

"Since 2000, we have asked them to report the existence of
several bank accounts suspected of storing such funds, but there
has been no response," said Wahyudi on the sidelines of a plenary
session between the House of Representatives and BPK.

Wahyudi explained that BPK had managed to detect the existence
of the nonbudgetary funds via bank accounts reported by the
government institutions to the agency during a routine audit.

But he said that several institutions had refused to provide
detailed reports of their accounts, such as the nominal value of
the accounts and their purposes. In some cases, the institutions
had even refused to report the existence of the accounts at all,
which had made BPK suspicious.

"It seems like they are hiding something. Such practices
occurred in several institutions, with the possible goal being
to prevent the funds from being transferred into the state
budget," said Wahyudi.

Nonbudgetary, or off-balance-sheet funds, are basically nontax
revenues collected by state institutions, but are not included in
the state budget. In the past, these huge funds were a source of
corruption and were allegedly used to finance the 32-year
authoritarian rule of former president Soeharto.

In a bid to curb corruption, as well as to implement good
governance and transparency in state institutions, the government
decided to eliminate nonbudgetary funds and transfer them to a
state revenue account subject to public audit.

The government had set a deadline of July 2000 for the
institutions to transfer the funds, with the Directorate General
of State Budget at the Ministry of Finance responsible for
overseeing the process.

Meanwhile, chairman of BPK Satrio B. Judono, renewed calls
urging the government to take stern measures in eliminating the
nonbudgetary funds by upholding Law No. 20/1997 on Nontax State
Revenue.

"It is the government's responsibility to collect the off-
balance funds as stipulated by the law, not us. They should look
at the law," said Judono.

Article 14 of the law stipulates that the Ministry of Finance
bears the responsibility for the collection and management of all
nontax revenues.

The article also states that the ministry should initiate an
investigation toward institutions suspected of retaining such
funds by appointing certain government institutions to conduct
the investigation.

However, the government is likely to wash their hands of the
issue, as Director General of State Budget Ansari Ritonga said
that it was the responsibility of BPK and other audit agencies to
conduct the investigation.

"My directorate only deals with on-budget funds. It is the job
of BPK and other state auditors, not us. We only follow up their
reports," said Ansari.

Ansari also denied accusations that the government had
bypassed the problem. He said that the directorate had tried to
eliminate the funds by issuing several notices, urging all
government institutions to transfer the funds to the state
budget.