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)