Mar'ie vows to find missing funds

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad vowed yesterday to get to the bottom of a discrepancy in government records regarding funds left over from the 1987 general election.

"I will send my staff to Bapeka (the Supreme Audit Board) to study why the data on the remainder of the 1987 election funds are different," he said at the end of a four-day hearing with the Budgetary Commission of the House of Representatives.

At least Rp 2.6 billion ($1.1 million) of the state funds reserved for the 1987 elections were left over after the elections had been completed, he said.

The minister said all of the remaining election funds had been returned to the state and that about Rp 670 million ($301,000) of the sum had subsequently been used for the 1992 elections.

Sulaiman Biyahimo of the Golkar faction, however, disputed the minister's data, saying that the elections committee had returned only Rp 4.9 million of the leftover funds.

He said his figure came from the reports of Bapeka.

Sulaiman said that the discrepancy reflected more than a bureaucratic error, but pointed to an improper use of the state funds.

Budget

The three-day hearing was concerned with the 1992/1993 state budget, which planned for a surplus of Rp 2.24 billion. Instead, there was a deficit of about Rp 551.2 billion (US$220.54 million) in 1992/1993.

The four factions of the House budgetary commission questioned the minister about the shortfall but, at the conclusion of the three-day hearing, the government's motion regarding a revision of the 1992/1993 budget was unanimously approved without any amendments.

Some legislators said that the deficit had been caused by inconsistency on the government's part in following the budget plan, which is traditionally proposed to the House before the start of each fiscal year.

The minister said that the difference between the budget estimate and the budget's realization was the result of time lags.

"The discrepancy occurred because the estimate was made before the end of the fiscal year," he said, adding that most of the spending during the remainder of the year had been by the strategic industries management board, which manages the IPTN aircraft company, the Pindad military equipment factory and the PAL ship-building company.(hen)