Managing state assets

Managing state assets

Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad should be commended for his
efforts to have the nation-wide inventory of state assets completed.
Although the job was completed almost 23 years after the issuance of the
Presidential Instruction on the inventory of state assets throughout the
country, and the final results have yet to be analyzed, at least the
government now has a data base to work with.

Taking stock of state assets which are spread out across the world's
largest archipelagic country is indeed not an easy, simple job,
especially because the assets have never been cataloged since the
nation's independence almost 49 years ago.

The urgency for establishing a centralized data bank for state assets
has indeed increased over the last few years, after the conclusion of
what many feel were questionable sales of state assets or exchanges of
state property for private. Such controversial deals may continue
without clear-cut procedures because such transactions usually involve
large sums of money. In major urban centers such as Jakarta, Surabaya
and Medan, where many state properties are located in prime sites and
thereby command premium prices, high officials are often tempted by
private investors or real estate developers with seemingly attractive
offers for trade-in or exchange of properties.

Mar'ie himself expressed his great concern over the recent
transactions involving state assets. Indeed, many of the recent deals
have raised eyebrows because they have not been fully transparent and
have not been concluded through open, competitive bids. Several deals
even created a perception among the public that politically-well
connected businessmen had been given preferential treatment. All this
obviously could have been possible because of the absence of clear-cut
bidding procedures for such exchanges and complete lack of basic data on
state assets.

Such questionable deals seem to have stopped, especially after
President Soeharto issued an order a few months ago that any
transactions of state assets must have the prior approval of his office.
But a more effective preventive system will be the establishment of
clear-cut procedures for such deals and the development of standard
accounting system for the state assets.

Now that a data base has been set up, the finance ministry which is
responsible for supervising state assets will find it easier to monitor
the assets. More encouraging, also, is the fact that the inventory has
listed all state land, including those which have yet to be certified.
These data, we think, are greatly fruitful for preventing or dealing
with land disputes with the people.

It is especially encouraging to note that the finance ministry also
is preparing a computerized accounting system for the monitoring and
management of state assets. A Regional Accountancy Board will be set up
at every second (district) and first-level (provincial) administration
to support the centralized inventory management of state assets. This
process, we think, is another step towards enhancing the public
accountability of state assets to supplement the already established
system of budget accounts which the government presents to the House
every year.