Govt offices often ignore findings on corruption

JAKARTA (JP): Development and Finance Comptroller (BPKP) Chairman Soedarjono complained yesterday that many government offices often ignored his office's findings on corruption.

"I think they feel ashamed with the findings, but their lack of attention to our findings really hurts us," he told a hearing with House of Representatives Commission APBN on budget.

Soedarjono said that his office, the government's only audit body, regularly checks the following up of the irregularity cases it has found in almost all government offices, but the progress was not so satisfying.

He said the unwillingness of internal auditors to follow up or settle the irregularity findings has partly caused the high number of corruption cases found in the government's offices and companies in the last two years.

In the 1995/96 fiscal year ending in March, his agency found 14,572 cases of irregularities with potential losses of Rp 532.59 billion to the state treasury.

In the previous fiscal year, the number of corruption cases found by the comptroller reached 15,732, with total potential losses of Rp 2.64 trillion.

"All of the findings had been reported to related government offices. However, only 3,977 cases, or around 27 percent of them, were settled," he said, adding that the remaining cases were left untouched.

Soedarjono said in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, which began in April, the number of irregularities discovered by his agency reached 3,236 involving Rp 143.08 billion in the government's money.

He said that the average number of cases of irregularities, which were followed up or settled by the related government offices, was only around 40 percent a year. In last fiscal year, the unsettled cases were even less than 30 percent.

Soedarjono said that the low ratio of settlements of the irregularities was mainly due to the poor internal control at respective government offices.

He said the procedures for selecting officials for internal auditing divisions were so weak that the recruited officials often did not understand their job descriptions.

Soedarjono said his office, assigned to do jobs related to auditing and supervision, could not do anything if the government offices did not pay serious attention to its findings.

"We have no power to pressure them to immediately settle the cases of irregularities. We are allowed only to ask the reason why the cases are closed or why they are left untouched," he told the commission members during the hearing.

The comptroller's findings were reported to the related government offices, which would, in turn, settle the corruption practices either through their internal supervisory bodies or through state prosecutors' offices.

Soedarjono said most of the irregularities took place due to the deviation of procedures.

He said in the 1996/97 fiscal year, his agency could audit only 26.3 percent of the government's 14,738 projects.

The auditing priority is given to projects financed by external loans or those which have not been audited for five consecutive years, he said. (hen)