Sumarlin retired as BPK chairman

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)