No guarantee exists to control budget: Minister

No guarantee exists to control budget: Minister

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

None of the existing systems or officials can guarantee that
irregularities in the management of state budget funds will not
recur in the future, no matter how hard inspectors general within
the ministries strive to control use of the funds, a state
minister said on Tuesday.

Over the last three months, 17 ministries have tried to solve
a total of 1,643 cases of budget irregularities causing potential
losses of Rp 3.2 trillion during the 2000-2001 period, according
to reports from the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK).

Last week, eight of the 17 ministries submitted reports on
their efforts to the Office of the State Minister of
Administrative Reforms -- which have been endorsed by the BPK --
demonstrating little success in the recovery of funds. They only
managed to recover around 7 percent of the potential losses.

Another five submitted their reports on Tuesday, with
inspectors general claiming that most of the cases had been
closed. However, many cases are still being investigated and
officials implicated have already been punished.

"It's difficult to guarantee that similar irregularities will
not recur. The most important policy is to tighten monitoring on
ministers and their subordinates in management of the budget,"
State Minister of Administrative Reforms Feisal Tamin said.

"I will also issue a circular to all the heads of state
institutions asking them to take an active role in following up
and solving all irregularities revealed either by state audit
agencies or members of the public," Feisal said at his office.

BPK's reports revealed that projected losses of up to Rp 3.2
trillion were due to the disappearances of Rp 1.4 trillion from
regional budgets, Rp 1.2 trillion from state-owned enterprises,
Rp 608 billion from the state budget and Rp 1 billion from the
Treasury Endowment Body.

Most of the cases, according to BPK, occurred because of
administrative disorder, unrealistic project targets and
inefficiency in using the budgets.

On Tuesday, inspector generals from the ministries of health,
religious affairs, forestry, industry and trade, and maritime
affairs and fisheries, said they believed that the ongoing
supervision of their offices would help reduce the misuse of
their routine expenses.

Ministry of Religious Affairs inspector general Muchtar
Zarkasih admitted that most of the irregularities found at his
ministry occurred through education projects conducted in
Jakarta, West Java and Central Java.

He said his office had succeeded in recovering potential
losses of Rp 48 million from a total of Rp 133 million in
discrepancies and had accounted for another Rp 19.9 million from
a Rp 22.2 million sum that should have been returned to state
coffers.

"We have also recovered Rp 19.4 million from the cases of
budget squandering totaling Rp 210 million, while we are still
working out how to deal with Rp 6.29 billion in budget
inefficiencies," he said.

Muchtar said none of the cases were prosecuted as all of them
were the result of weaknesses in the ministry's administrative
systems and procedures.

Ministry of Health inspector general Kuswartini claimed that
she had often been assisted by the BPK and the Development and
Finance Control Agency (BPKP) in supervising budget management.