Irregularities in budget spending 17 percent: BPK

Irregularities in budget spending 17 percent: BPK

Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta

The Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) revealed on Tuesday it had
discovered 758 cases of irregularities in the use of the state
budget amounting to Rp 6.421 trillion (US$710 million) between
January and June of this year, or 17 percent of the total value
of spending being investigated.

But BPK said it had yet to see any follow-up on the findings,
including punishment for the guilty parties.

"The House should exert control over the bureaucracy regarding
various improper expenditures before deciding to approve the
proposed state budget revision for fiscal 2003," BPK deputy
chairman I Gede Artjana told The Jakarta Post after holding a
close-door meeting with House Commission I on political, security
and foreign affairs at his office.

The meeting was held to discuss a request from the Ministry of
Defense to raise its budget from Rp 16.162 trillion (US$18
million) last year to Rp 19.487 trillion in 2003.

Artjana said the House had failed to follow up on the BPK's
findings and impose stern sanctions against the bureaucrats
involved.

"This country's legal system has various laws for various
violations, but I don't see a determination on the part of the
House to maximize its efforts (to bring the perpetrators to
court)," Artjana said.

Irregularities were found in the Indonesian embassies in
Singapore and Beijing involving Rp 14,501 million, and the
Ministry of Forestry (Rp 27,511 million).

The BPK also found irregularities in the use of Rp 4.2 billion
of foreign borrowings intended for providing export credit
facilities in the Ministry of Defense, the Indonesian Military
and the National Police.

The Air Force topped the list, with irregularities amounting
to 100 percent of its total Rp 745 million budget allocation.
The Army, perceived as the most corrupt, was found to have
misused Rp 250 million, or 18.3 percent, of its budget.

Regarding non-budgetary funds, the BPK found irregularities in
the Ministry of Religious Affairs (Rp 3,564 million) and the
Presidential Aid Fund (Banpres) (Rp 23,678 million).

The amount was far lower than that of the previous year, when
state and regional offices and state enterprises were reported to
have misused Rp 36.5 trillion of state funds.

Only a few of the cases were taken to court.

BPK chairman Satrio Budihardjo "Billy" Joedono once complained
that the government -- from the time of the New Order era up to
the present day -- had never followed up on the BPK's audit
reports.

Artjana meanwhile said that Government Regulation No. 30/1980
on the civil service provides for administrative sanctions
against bureaucrats. These included dismissal should they fail to
improve their professionalism.

"There are other laws, such as the Criminal Code and the
Anticorruption Law, that allow law enforcers to bring bureaucrats
before the court if they are suspected of misusing state funds,"
Artjana said.

Much lip service has been paid to the need to eradicate graft
and corruption since the end of the New Order era, but few real
results have been yielded so far.