State asset reports require double checking: Sumarlin

State asset reports require double checking: Sumarlin

JAKARTA (JP): Reports on state assets must be examined
thoroughly, Chairman of the Supreme Audit Agency, J. B. Sumarlin,
said yesterday.

"We need a balance sheet to know the developments of all of
our state assets -- what, how many and where they are," he said
here yesterday after submitting a report on the agency's auditing
of state budget implementation in the first semester of 1993-1994
to the House of Representatives.

"We have to examine the reports on state assets and their use
through cross-checking with other reports," he said.

According to the Ministry of Finance, the publisher of the
annual State Assets Inventory, Indonesia's state assets,
consisting mostly of land and buildings, were worth Rp 53.7
trillion (US$24.8 billion) as of April 1, 1994.

Sumarlin said yesterday, however, that the assets report
should be examined thoroughly due to "lack of orderliness among
government officials."

A vice chairman of the State Audit Agency, Kunarto, later told
reporters that the agency had uncovered a number of cases of
fraud at the cumulative amount of Rp 600 billion in a period from
April 1 to Sept. 30, 1993.

Kunarto clarified that the agency had examined about 10
percent of the total number of cases uncovered throughout the
country.

"You can imagine yourself how much money we lost," he said.

Sumarlin, a former minister of finance himself, has been
mentioned repeatedly in relation to pressure put on four former
Bank Bapindo executives to motivate them to give loans to
businessman Eddy Tansil, the alleged perpetrator of a US$433
million bank scam.

He consistently denies the charges that he was involved in the
bank scam, saying that he never knew Tansil personally.

Shortcomings

Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad acknowledged the
shortcomings in the inventory in June, most notably those of the
state assets administered by provincial governments.

But Mar'ie said the result of the latest inventory seemed much
closer to reality because cumulative government investments over
the past 25 years, without being reduced by depreciation, had
totaled Rp 85 trillion.

Sumarlin said yesterday that in a bid to improve the
monitoring of state finances, the State Audit Agency would, as of
yesterday, open its financial reports to the public every six
months, instead of each year.

The Speaker of the House, Wahono, said government officials
must use every rupiah of the state budget effectively due to the
current financial constraints.

He said that he will distribute copies of the report to the
various House commissions soon and urge legislators to pay more
attention to supervising the use of state assets.

In a related development, Kunarto denied collusion between the
government and the State Audit Agency, saying that the agency has
never asked the government to update its financial statements
prior to the delivery of the agency reports to the House. (09)