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)