Govt offices ignore audit agency findings

Govt offices ignore audit agency findings

JAKARTA (JP): Many financial irregularities reported by the government audit agency are disregarded by government agencies, a senior official says.

Chief of the Development and Finance Control Board Soedarjono told a hearing with the House of Representatives' Commission II on home affairs yesterday that only a small number of the findings, which involved trillions of rupiah, were "followed up" by the agencies.

Most were shelved, he was quoted by Antara news agency as saying.

In the hearing presided over by Adolf Jouke Sondakh of the Golkar faction, Soedarjono paid particular attention to the government agencies' disregard of the findings and changes in organizational structures.

He said that due to those changes, it is often difficult for the board to find the officials who should be held accountable for old findings.

The board found during 1993/94 fiscal year a total of 15,437 cases of irregularities involving Rp 767.8 billion (approximately US$ 335 million at current rate) of funds.

A total of 10,417 cases, involving Rp281.2 billion of funds, were then "followed up". The other 5,020 cases involving Rp 468.6 billion were shelved.

The next year, the board found 15,608 irregularities involving Rp 2.698 trillion (approximately US$1.177 billion). The relevant government agencies handled 7,079 of the cases, worth a total of Rp 1.820 trillion.

The remaining 8,529 cases involving Rp 877,7 billion were ignored, Soedarjono said.

During the 1995/96 fiscal year, the board uncovered 6,549 cases of irregularities which involved Rp 186.2 billion (approximately US$81,239,092) of funds. Only 820 cases involving Rp 24.6 billion were followed up, while 5,729 cases worth Rp 161.6 billion were shelved.

Soedarjono classified the findings into several groups: cases which inflicted losses on the state, violations of procedures, administration weaknesses, and obstacles toward public service. (swe)