No more shame of public funds abuse

No more shame of public funds abuse

There is a strong suspicion that 40 percent of the regional decentralization subsidies known as the General Allocation Fund (DAU) for the 2001 fiscal year have been misused by almost all regional administrations.

Some Rp 26 trillion, or 40 percent, of the total DAU amounting to Rp 60.516 trillion for the 2001 fiscal year, which had been allocated by the central government to cover routine and development costs in provinces, regencies and municipalities, have been used for other purposes, such as purchasing luxury cars and houses.

Chairman of the House Budgetary Committee Benny Pasaribu recently disclosed the alleged public funds abuse, but without mentioning the identities of those thought to be involved. He simply asked the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) and the Development and Finance Control Agency (BPKP) to audit the DAU.

We had feared the possibility that regional autonomy would simply shift various forms of corruption from the central government to regional administrations, as we have not yet prepared a control system capable of preventing such leakages. Actually, we had detected various leakages even before Benny's recent disclosure.

The abuse of subsidies supplied by the central government to regional administrations has been going on since the New Order period. Today, in the regional autonomy era, regional administrations have greater authority.

We can feel how weak the central government is in upholding the rule of law. When Benny disclosed the alleged abuse of the DAU funds, Director General for Financial Balance between the Central Government and Regional Administrations, Machfud Sidik, argued that the DAU had been audited by regional administrations' control bodies.

The IMF has also asked for the DAU to be audited. Such a step would be worthwhile if the central government were to implement a strategy based on the results of the audit, but could fail if regional administrations were able to pressure the central government by lobbying House members and the political elite, and the central government were then to make various excuses in its report to the IMF.

The alleged abuse of the DAU funds vindicates fears of significant deviations from the ultimate objective of regional autonomy, namely, improving the welfare of people living in the regions.

-- Kompas, Jakarta