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