Many graft findings 'ignored'
Many graft findings 'ignored'
JAKARTA (JP): The Development and Finance Comptroller (BPKP)
complained yesterday that government offices were very slow in
acting on malfeasance practices it uncovered.
"In many instances, no follow up measures have been pursued,"
BPKP's chairman Soedarjono told a meeting with the House
Budgetary Commission.
Soedarjono added that government offices had acted on only
about 10 percent of the 17,731 instances of financial
irregularities involving Rp 531 billion (US$177 million) in state
losses BPKP had uncovered during the 1996/1997 fiscal year, which
ended in March.
"For fiscal 1995/1996, only 61.05 percent of the 18,717
instances of corruption involving Rp 908.1 billion in state loses
have so far been followed up," he added.
"Our authority is quite limited. We can make only suggestions
on our findings. If the officials in charge do not act on our
findings, we can only report them to their supervisors,"
Soeardjono said.
Legislators expressed concern yesterday over the government's
tendency to disregard the findings of the comptroller, citing
such behavior as a reflection of the country's high tolerance of
corruption.
Many international research institutes have often classified
Indonesia among the most corrupt countries in the world.
Soedarjono noted that his office had also uncovered a number
of cases whereby the value of state properties bartered for
private properties had been underpriced.
In many cases, he added, the private companies tended to
undervalue the government's assets and overvalue their own assets
involved in barter deals.
He added that BPKP often faced major hurdles in auditing the
public sector's finances.
Soedarjono said the secrecy clause of the banking law, for
example, often barred BPKP from investigating irregularities at
state banks.
United Development Party representative Sa'di Zen Noor noted
at the meeting that many employees of the central bank, Bank
Indonesia (BI), were known to be involved in corruption when
providing subsidized credits to commercial banks and companies.
"Bank Indonesia's executives often colluded with commercial
bank employees in abusing subsidized credits," Noor said.
Legislator S.G.B. Tampubolon of the Indonesian Democratic
Party faction cited the recent controversy over what was
cynically called the "national shoes" program as a flagrant
example of the government's tolerance of malfeasance.
A private company, owned by a politically well-connected
businessman, attempted a few months ago to monopolize the sales
of uniform shoes to millions of Indonesian school children,
claiming it was backed by the Ministry of Education and Culture.
The project, which was protested strongly by parents across
the country, was stopped only after President Soeharto raised
strong objection to it last week.
"Although the project had been implemented in a number of
schools in Java, the government has not taken any measure against
the private company," Tampubolon said.
Ruling Golkar representative Tadjuddin Noer Said noted the
government seemed to lack the political will to fight corruption,
though existing laws and regulations regarding corruption were
more than enough.
"Our anticorruption laws and regulations are among the most
comprehensive in the world," Tadjuddin pointed out.
The government has also set up internal-audit mechanisms at
all offices, in addition to BPKP and the Supreme Audit Agency,
and yet corruption practices remained extensive, he added. (das)