'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.