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.