Ministry of Finance ranks top for corruption

Ministry of Finance ranks top for corruption

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Finance ranks first in the
amount of funds involved in corruption practices, followed by the
Ministry of Agriculture, according to the Development Finance
Comptroller (BPKP).

The audit agency's findings of malfeasance in ministries were
revealed here yesterday by Achmad Zainuri of the United
Development Party (PPP) to reporters during a break of the
agency's hearing with Commission II of the House of
Representatives.

According to Zainuri, who based his figures on BPKP's report
to the House, financial irregularities taking place in the
Ministry of Finance during the period between September and
December last fiscal year reached Rp 179 billion (US$77.8
million).

The audit agency's chairman, Soedarjono, who disclosed the
total number of corruption cases in the last three fiscal years
during the hearing, confirmed corruption practices in eight
ministries.

The irregularities found in the Ministry of Finance did not
include the Rp 900 billion in financial losses resulting from a
loan scandal at the state-owned Bank Pembangunan Indonesia
(Bapindo) in 1993.

The Ministry of Agriculture came in the second place, with
total irregularities amounting to over Rp 48.9 billion, followed
by the Ministry of Home Affairs, with over Rp 30.8 billion in
financial irregularities.

In addition, the Ministry of Transportation was fourth, with
potential losses of Rp 19.7 billion; the Ministry of Mines and
Energy, fifth, with Rp 18.1 billion; and the Ministry of
Cooperatives, sixth, with Rp 11.5 billion.

The irregularities found in the Ministry of Industry and Trade
reached Rp 10 billion. Those in the Office of the State
Secretariat amounted to Rp 28 million.

Soedarjono said that the irregularities in the Ministry of
Finance included those relating to tax payments.

"Tax frauds carried out by taxpayers were also included in the
malfeasance discovered in the Ministry of Finance," he said in
explaining the reason for the large number of corrupt practices
estimated to have taken place in the Ministry of Finance.

In addition to the lack of internal supervision, the Ministry
of Finance, which oversees most of the country's financial
activities, is more appealing for corruption, he said.

Soedarjono told the hearing that the irregularity findings in
government offices, agencies and state-owned companies sharply
declined in value to Rp 888.72 billion in the 1995/96 fiscal year
ending in March, from Rp 2.64 trillion in the previous fiscal
year.

The number of the corruption cases increased to 18,578 in
1995/96 from 15,732 a year earlier.

Soedarjono, however, complained that only 2,667 (or 15
percent) of the total findings, with potential state losses of
around Rp 59.41 billion, had been settled.

He said that all of his agency's findings were reported to
related government offices, which would, in turn, settle the
corruption practices either through their internal supervisory
bodies or through state prosecutors' offices.

He said that corruption practices remain rampant in government
offices because officials both in the executive levels or in
lower ranks do not really care about the internal supervision in
their offices.

"The compromising culture in the bureaucracy renders the
internal control ineffective," he said, adding that the
Indonesians culture, which stresses "excessive" respect for
seniors and the avoidance of hurting people's feelings, was also
an important factor behind the high corruption rate in the
country. (hen)

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