Legislators question education officials

Legislators question education officials

JAKARTA (JP): Legislators questioned Ministry of Education and
Culture officials on Monday over concerns that education was
being exploited for business opportunities.

During the hearing, legislators raised the issue of school
book prices and the fact that universities were increasingly
opening up extension programs to rake in more revenues.

Cahyono HS of the House of Representatives' Armed Forces
faction questioned the high price of school books for students in
rural areas. "Would this have any relation to reports of
corruption, collusion and nepotism in school book publishing?"
another member asked.

During a break, Indra Djati Sidhi, the ministry's director
general for basic and middle education, said it was "impossible"
that school book bids were rigged "because every bid is held
according to official procedures" and each had its own code.

On Monday, Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW), a government
watchdog, estimated that Rp 400 billion, or 30 percent of the
World Bank's Book and Reading Interest Project funds to Indonesia
had gone unaccounted for. The project targets high school
students and has been scheduled to run from 1996 to 2000.

ICW, coordinated by Teten Masduki, said the ministry's bid
mechanism was to blame for the leakage in funds.

"We demand that the World Bank postpone its funds for 1998
until the leakage can be further investigated," ICW said.

It alleged that corruption within the ministry had forced book
prices to increase by as much as 30 percent above normal prices.
School books are also very poorly produced, ICW said.

The books to be screened in the bid mechanism, ICW charged,
had already been determined by the ministry based on a
recommendation by the national committee in charge of evaluating
high schools. "Usually a quota for each of the books is divided
equally (among selected publishers) in line with an agreement
with the ministry," ICW said.

Indra argued, however, that the bidding process was jointly
supervised by the ministry and the World Bank.

"Qualifications from the World Bank for publishers to win the
bid include the value of the book, the distribution network and
the price," said Indra.

Wiyoto Nursahid of the United Development faction, asked about
the requirements and qualifications for universities wishing to
set up extension programs, a new source of additional income to
most of the country's 76 state universities.

Bambang Soehendro, director general of advanced education,
admitted that many extension courses had been set up without
legal permits. He said a few of the programs, however, had closed
due to a lack of facilities, including forestry and nursing
programs at Medan's North Sumatra University. (01)