`Rp 4.8b from 2002 budget misused'

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite the allegations of rampant corruption in the city administration, the city audit agency has found that only some Rp 4.85 billion of the 2002 city budget was embezzled or otherwise misused.

Jakarta Audit Agency director Hendarin Ono Soleh revealed the finding in a report presented at a discussion on Monday to Governor Sutiyoso.

The report, however, was greeted skeptically by various sides, who said that the finding was far from the reality of corruption among the bureaucrats as it was based solely on administrative reports from each of the city government's work units.

Abdul Azis Matnur, a member of the City Council's Commission A for administrative affairs, said more than 30 percent of the Rp 9.7 trillion City Budget had been embezzled by city officials, particularly those involved in city projects.

He gave as an example the fact that the city administration had provided a suit for each member of the City Council in 2002. The relevant tailor won the tender at a price of Rp 3 million for each suit. But when Abdul sought to exchange his entitlement for cash as he wanted to use another tailor, he was only given Rp 1.5 million.

The tailor said that he could only give Rp 1.5 million to Azis as before winning the tender, he had to bribe the officials who organized the tender, and to pay off the other tender participants so that they would be prepared to lose the tender in order to allow the eventual winner to emerge successful.

"In this example, we can say that the corruption reaches up to 50 percent. But in other, bigger projects, the level is usually lower than that. Therefore, I would say that over 30 percent of the Rp 9.7 trillion City Budget is embezzled or misused," Azis told the press here on Monday.

Similar assertions were made by a number of other people who had participated in tenders for various city projects. They said that in many cases, the tender winners had already been decided before the tender process began.

"I believe the level of budget corruption is more than that. The city audit agency should not only check out the reports. They should investigate what is behind the reports," said Syamsidar Siregar of the National Mandate Party (PAN).

To win a tender, a participant had to pay up to 25 percent of the project's real value to the officials involved, including project leaders, tender supervisors, and work unit heads.

The other bidders also had to be paid off so as to accept losing in the tender. The number of tender participants normally amounted to about seven.

Azis was not surprised by the city audit agency as it had never seriously investigated corruption in the bureaucracy. He said that what was investigated was only the administrative reports.

In his report, Hendarin said that there were 126 cases of corruption in all of the city's work units. Only 48 cases could be proved while 78 other cases of alleged corruption were not proved.

Based upon proven corruption cases in the bureaucracy, the city suffered losses of about Rp.4.85 billion while other losses arose from the loss of official city vehicles, which reached Rp 402.2 million.

Governor Sutiyoso himself admitted the corruption figure of only around Rp 4.85 billion was not the real figure as many cases of corruption were not detected.

"The corruptors use more sophisticated methods than those doing the investigations," Sutiyoso told the press on Monday.

He claimed, however, that his administration had done much to combat corruption, saying that hundreds of officials had so far been punished. He also added that a number of cases had been reported to the police.