Plunder of public funds continues

Plunder of public funds continues

From Warta Kota

In this reform period, corruption, collusion and nepotism keep
going and state agencies continue to be plundered of public
funds. According to the latest findings of the Supreme Audit
Agency, in the second semester of 2003, irregularities involving
Rp 4.5 trillion-worth of public money were discovered.

Surprisingly, the Attorney General's Office (AGO) hit the
graft record of 95.04 percent, or Rp 11.4 billion of the Rp 11.9
billion audited. The highest rate of deviation in development
spending was also found at the AGO, with its legal development
project in Banten registering 95.63 percent of the Rp 118 million
audited.

While the institution entrusted with the duty of upholding the
supremacy of law is involved in such irregularities, what other
agencies can we trust? Possibly, in what people believe to be a
time of madness, they do not hesitate to plunder the state of its
wealth, so that even law enforcers become law violators.

MAHDIYONO SALIM
Jakarta