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)