Sumarlin retired as BPK chairman

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto signed a presidential decree yesterday to discharge J.B. Sumarlin as chairman of the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) as he has reached the mandatory retirement age of 65.

As required by law, Soeharto will now ask the House of Representatives to nominate candidates to replace him.

"Sumarlin turned 65 years old on Dec.7, and according to our law it is the retirement age of the agency's chairmen," Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono said yesterday.

BPK will be chaired collectively by its members until a new chairman is selected.

Sumarlin was sworn in as BPK chairman in August 1993, after serving as minister of finance from 1988 to March 1993.

An economist, Sumarlin was also state minister of national development planning/chairman of the national development planning board (Bappenas) from 1983 to 1988.

From 1973 to 1983 he was State Minister for the Utilization of State Apparatus.

In his last meeting with House (of Representatives) Speaker Harmoko last month, Sumarlin reported that BPK had found that the government had lost billions of rupiah due to poor financial management over the second semester of the 1996/1997 fiscal year.

The losses were the result of 607 irregularities the agency found in its auditing of the state budget.

In June he also revealed hundreds of billions of rupiah in state financial losses for the first semester of last year.

Sumarlin at the time suggested the House revise the 1973 law on the audit agency, saying the present law did not enable the agency to follow up on its findings. (prb)