Papua, Aceh scrutinized over budget misuses

Papua, Aceh scrutinized over budget misuses

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government has set up a team to probe alleged budget misuse
by two resource-rich, autonomous provinces, Papua and Aceh, a
senior cabinet minister said.

Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Thursday that the team would be
led by Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno in close
coordination with the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP).

He, nevertheless, failed to disclose when the team would carry
out its investigation.

According to Susilo, the government has received information
about alleged misappropriation of budgets allocated to Papua and
Aceh.

"The move is an attempt to prevent abuses which may affect
local administrations when they carry out their daily duties.

"Nevertheless, we want the public to respect the principle of
the presumption of innocence during the investigation. If we find
out that the allegations are true, we will not hesitate to impose
stern sanctions against them," Susilo said after holding a
meeting on political and security issues on Thursday.

Also present in the meeting, held to evaluate the performance
of the Aceh and Papua administrations, were Indonesian Military
Commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto, National Police chief Gen.
Da'i Bachtiar, and Hari Sabarno.

Under special autonomy arrangements, the two provinces were
given the authority to draw up plans on how to spend their
respective budgets while taking into account the needs of locals.

The two provinces have submitted their 2003 budgets with
programs to the central government, but Susilo said "the
government needs to clarify whether budgets have been channeled
into appropriate programs."

During the 2002 fiscal year, Aceh received Rp 2.2 trillion
from the general allocation fund, and another Rp 1.87 trillion
from the profit sharing of oil and gas revenue.

For the 2003 fiscal year, the province will get a total of Rp
2.3 trillion from the general allocation fund, while the profit
sharing will revolve around last year's figure.

Papua, on the other hand, received a total of Rp 1.3 trillion
from the general allocation fund in 2002. That amount went up to
Rp 1.5 trillion in 2003.

In addition, the province got Rp 663 billion from profit
sharing from oil and gas revenue in 2002 and about the same
amount in 2003.

Asked whether the central government was suspicious that Papua
and Aceh administrations had disbursed some funds to separatist
movements there, Susilo said: "I'm not going into details. But
misuse could vary from their failure to account for their
spending to possible disbursement to rebellion groups."