Purbaya's Tale of Being Grilled Over 'Reckless Spending'

Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa has shared an account of a question that served as a wake-up call for him as the state treasurer. The former head of the Indonesia Deposit Insurance Corporation admitted he was once asked about the quality of state spending. Unfortunately, Purbaya did not reveal who posed the question. According to the questioner, as Finance Minister, Purbaya was seen as remaining silent on the use of budget spending deemed reckless. “I was asked by someone earlier, they said the Ministry of Finance controls the budget, so why is there so much reckless spending and you just stay silent?” Purbaya said during the inauguration of echelon I officials at the Ministry of Finance in Jakarta some time ago. Purbaya gave a convoluted answer, but he realised the question was very important. As a result of this question, Purbaya asked Sudarto, the newly appointed Director General of Budget, to form an internal team to study every existing budget proposal to prevent further oversights, including regarding the budget for purchasing electric motorcycles for the Free Nutritious Meals programme. “I answered in circles, but I thought the question was correct and fundamental: why do we stay silent? Later, you should form a team there in the Directorate General of Budget so there is a team that controls and studies whether it is a problem or not,” Purbaya said. “So the complaint to us is correct, that we seem to be condoning it,” he added. From this experience, he asked the Directorate General of Budget to become the guardian of fiscal discipline and state spending, not just a keeper of the deficit. Purbaya also urged the new Director General of Budget to be careful in following up on additional spending budgets. He warned that additional spending must not disrupt the overall budget. “All budget plans must be carried out consistently. This means if there are additional spending budgets, you must be careful in the follow-up. So, in your follow-up, do not let the additional spending disrupt our budget. The important thing is to ensure that ministries and agencies understand that the fiscal discipline we will spend is in accordance with what has been budgeted,” Purbaya explained. Regarding the electric motorcycle budget for the Free Nutritious Meals programme, Purbaya previously revealed that he knew nothing about it. He only knew that the electric motorcycle budget was cut last year. However, he did not know that motorcycles had already been purchased from that procurement. Thus, Purbaya admitted he was caught off guard. The budget value reached Rp1.05 trillion for the import purchase of 25,000 electric motorcycles.