Vehicle maintenance losses jump to Rp 16b

JAKARTA (JP): The loss of funds allocated by the city for the maintenance of official vehicles in the first eight months of this fiscal year jumped from an estimated Rp 2 billion (US$266,666) to about Rp 16 billion, an official at the city supplies office said on Wednesday.

The official, who asked not to be named, said that the figure of Rp 2 billion was registered only from the regional secretariat, one of the 38 offices and units under the supervision of the city administration.

The total allocation for all of the city's official vehicles was Rp 37.41 billion, not Rp 4.82 billion as reported previously, he said.

According to data from the supplies office, the real number of official vehicles included in the routine expenditure was only 3,873, far below the figure of 6,797 that was reported for the budget calculation.

Governor Sutiyoso said on Tuesday that he had instructed the city inspectorate office and the city reform team to thoroughly investigate the case.

"If there is evidence that there are people who intentionally marked up the number of vehicles, I will take punitive actions against them, either administratively or financially," he said.

He said that if the errant officials had used the money for personal purposes he would confiscate their belongings as punishment.

Head of the city reform team Abdul Kahfi and city secretary Fauzi Bowo said that they had known about the case for a long time, but refused to elaborate.

"There are indications (about the practice of marking up the number of vehicles). We have investigated the case for a long time, but we still cannot announce our findings, in order to preserve the principle of the presumption of innocence," Kahfi said.

Fauzi said that the administration was still collecting data on the case.

The head of the City Council's Commission C for Financial Affairs Amarullah Asbah said that the problem was caused mainly by the administration's lack of control and supervision.

He strongly criticized the administration for allowing such a malfeasance to occur when the city was facing budget difficulties.

"The practice of marking up the number of vehicles is so ironic because Governor Sutiyoso has many times encouraged all city units to become more thrifty during the economic difficulties," he said.

Amarullah demanded that Sutiyoso recalculate the city budget after uncovering this vehicle scheme.

He said that the recalculation should be done as soon as possible to enable the administration to trace the missing funds.

"If the malfeasance can be found soon, the funds can immediately be allocated to other posts which badly need attention, like those dealing with social and economic problems," he said. (ida)