NGOs demand accountability from donors
NGOs demand accountability from donors
Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government should scrutinize local and international donor
agencies to make sure they are not abusing the millions of
dollars in funds channeled to them after the tsunami tragedy, a
corruption watchdog says.
"Transparency and accountability of the funds must be applied
to donors as well," Transparency International (TI) Indonesia
secretary-general Emmy Hafild said on Thursday, on the sidelines
of the Expert Meeting on Corruption Prevention in Tsunami Relief.
The two-day meeting -- jointly held by the government, the
Asian Development Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD) and TI -- is discussing the formulation of
a better disaster relief fund management system.
Non-governmental organizations in Indonesia had already found
indications that some funds would likely be embezzled or misused
by the donor agencies, Emmy said.
"Many donor agencies are implementing their own programs
outside of the government's planned ones," she said. "This raises
a big question, because we don't know how much money has actually
been raised or disbursed or is even being spent on overhead
costs."
As an example, Emmy said fisherman in one village in tsunami-
devastated Aceh lost 30 boats worth Rp 35 million (US$3,684)
each. However, the donor agencies in charge of helping them had
reported the villagers lost 200 boats worth Rp 59 million each.
Donor countries could also manipulate aid money, she said and
many had imposed terms on recipient countries such as requiring
them to buy only the donor countries' products.
"If such conditions are inevitable, the public should be
informed in advance," she said.
It was important that recipient and donor countries, donor
agencies and NGOs cooperated to set up and manage a database of
the funds, Emmy said.
"The database should be put on a website and available in all
publicly accessible places down to the local level, particularly
where emergency relief programs and reconstruction projects are
taking place." Subdistrict offices and refugee centers were good
places to start, she said.
"There also needs to be an independent committee formed to
supervise and audit the funds."
Even if donor agencies' confidence in recipient countries
governance remained low, they should still uphold transparency
themselves, she said.
"How can we push the (Indonesian) government to be
transparent, if the donors themselves are not transparent?" she
said.
The OECD has already laid out a legal framework to prevent
corruption from donors. However, Aceh NGO Forum executive
director TAF Haikal questioned the scheme. The OECD had yet to
disclose the number of public officials, donor agencies or
companies that had actually been sanctioned, he said. The system
would only be seen to be working if donor organizations
embezzling funds were singled out and punished, he said.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Finance treasury director Mulia P.
Nasution said it would be difficult for the government to account
for funds if the donor agencies did not report their activities.
Nasution said the government had set up a special state
treasury office in Banda Aceh to manage the disbursement of the
funds.
It would also allocate Rp 4 trillion (US$421 million) in the
2005 state budget revision draft, from the $2.4 billion debt
moratorium it had received from the Paris Club group of creditor
nations, he said.
The National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) recently
revised the financial needs for the reconstruction of Aceh and
parts of North Sumatra to Rp 48.76 trillion from Rp 41.74
trillion, taking into account the latest earthquake in Nias and
the Simeulue islands.