Provinces, regencies deny embezzling development funds
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A number of provinces and regencies denied accusations that around 40 percent of the Rp 60 trillion allocated by the central government for the payment of civil servants' salaries and financing of capital projects this year had been embezzled.
The provinces of North Sumatra, and West, Central and East Java said they were prepared to be audited by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) on the use of the General Allocation Fund (DAU) disbursements the central government had paid them this year.
They were responding to the statement by Benny Pasaribu, chairman of the House of Representatives' budget committee, who claimed that 40 percent of the Rp 60 trillion allocated by the central government from the DAU had been embezzled and used to purchase luxury cars and houses, among other things.
Amrun Daulay, secretary of the North Sumatra provincial administration, said it was impossible for the provincial government to have misused the funds as they had all been used to pay the salaries of civil servants in the province.
"The central government only allocated us Rp 264 billion while, in fact, we need Rp 269 billion to pay the 19,650 civil servants, including teachers, in the province. We later received Rp 13.9 billion in the form of contingency funds to cover the deficit and finance some capital projects," he told The Jakarta Post at his office here on Tuesday.
Daulay said the majority of capital projects in the province had been financed from the province's own revenues worth Rp 452 billion. These had been raised under various heads, including taxes and fees.
"If the funds were embezzled, all the civil servants and their families would be screaming of starvation because there would have been nothing with which to pay their salaries," he said.
East Java's Governor Imam Utomo dismissed the accusation, saying all officials in the province were ready to be audited.
He also said that besides the Rp 470 billion allocated to the province, the provincial government had also had to demand Rp 231 billion in contingency funds to enable it to pay its civil servants and finance capital projects in the current fiscal year.
"The BPK should audit the uses to which the funds were put to, especially the capital projects, if the central government and the House of Representatives have suspicions about embezzlement," he said, adding he was ready to be held accountable for the use of the funds.
Danny Setiawan, secretary of the West Java provincial administration, said that the Rp 521 billion disbursed to the province has been used as intended.
"We have used the DAU to pay civil servants' salaries and to cover operating costs this year. All spending can be accounted for," he said after opening a workshop in the city's Islamic center on Tuesday.
Danny suggested that the central government and the provincial administrations be transparent in the funds' usage to avoid any suspicions in the future.
"Or, another alternative is that civil servants' salaries be directly paid by the central government," he said.
Rustriningsih, regent of Kebumen in Central Java, and Aris Setiono, regent of Kebumen, said separately on Tuesday that it would be better for the BPK to audit the use of General Allocation Fund payments as part of the attempt to create clean government.
Aris said his administration had received Rp 293 billion from the provincial government to pay 15,000 civil servants in the regency.
"If we had these funds ourselves, we would be able to assist the more than 20,000 villagers who have been forced to abandon their homes because of the floods that hit the regency," he said.
Rustriningsih also said he was ready to be held accountable for the use of the Rp 258 billion allocated to the regency out of the DAU this year.