Police denies causing state losses

P.C. Naommy, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) report that questionable police auditing procedures had "lost" Rp 7.1 billion of public money last year, was rejected by the National Police on Tuesday.

The Inspector General for the police's General Supervision Body (Itwasum), Comr. Gen. Binarto said the BPK's original report was incomplete.

Binarto said limited resources were to blame for the department's inability to annually audit all working units in provincial police departments across the country.

"It's understandable that the BPK isn't able to audit all working units in Polri (National Police), as we, as (the police's) internal auditors, couldn't do so either," Binarto said.

He said the BPK's findings only indicated "potential" losses, not any real losses to the country.

Police had since supplied the BPK with updated information on the new units, which meant more money from the state budget was accounted for.

"We have already updated the BPK's first half-year report, which it has accepted, so during the first half-year we believe all public money was properly accounted for," Binarto said.

The BPK has audited seven police departments across the country. Four of the audits were conducted during the first half- of last year, while another three were done in the second half.

An earlier audit found a total of Rp 12.67 billion in accounting irregularities for the 2003 fiscal year. However, the BPK cleared Rp 9.07 billion of these losses after police submitted additional documents.

Binarto admitted there were still potential losses amounting to Rp 3.6 billion for the second semester.

"We have also submitted an adjustment to BPK's second half- year audit by completing financial accountability reports. Now we are waiting for the BPK's response," Binarto said.

The police did not anticipate any likelihood of rejection of the revised report.

"We have found that most of the irregularities found by the BPK are caused by the lack of adherence to accounting procedures by police personnel who have not presented their financial accountability reports," Binarto said.

A lack of funding has also caused confusion within the police's supervisory body. Itwasum had earlier maintained it still needed to recheck the BPK audits to ensure they were valid. It has also said it would not audit working units already audited by the BPK for reasons of cost-efficiency.