House asked to probe consortium's report
House asked to probe consortium's report
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) has
urged the House of Representatives to examine the accountability
report submitted by the 19th SEA Games (SEAG) underwriting
consortium because they believe it lacks transparency.
Deputy chairman of the foundation, Agus Pambagio, suggested
Thursday that the House summon the consortium, State Minister of
Youth Affairs and Sports Agung Laksono, Minister of Social
Services Siti Hardijanti Rukmana, Coordinating Minister for
People's Welfare Haryono Suyono and executives of the National
Sports Council for hearings to discuss the implementation of 19th
Southeast Asian Games fund-raising program through sticker sales
last year.
The consortium said in its audited report submitted to Agung
recently that it suffered a Rp 64 billion deficit, down Rp 4
billion from its previous reported losses.
"Data manipulation and inaccuracy might occur in the drawing-
up of the report," Agus said. "A hearing at the House is expected
to reveal how the consortium counted the funds collected from the
public and what the funds were for."
The House has been in recess since the end of February, and
will resume early in May.
Agus said he had received a call from someone informing about
irregularities in the fund-raising program. He refused to
identify the source.
"Basically we await the consortium's goodwill to talk to the
public and reveal what's happening with the money," Agus said.
The foundation had planned to file a lawsuit against the
consortium over the lack of transparency in its management of the
public fund.
There was no clear figures on how much the consortium had
raised from sticker sales from July 1996 to Dec. 31 last year.
The stickers, imposed on telephone, water and electricity
users, airplane passengers and car owners, were sold under a
ministerial decree issued by then minister of social services
Endang Kusuma Inten Soeweno.
Agus also said the foundation had requested in writing
meetings with all parties involved in the fund raising, but it
received no responses. (emf)