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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