Watchdog to monitor ministry

Watchdog to monitor ministry

JAKARTA: A group of students, teachers and education experts
declared on Monday the establishment of the National Education
Watch (NEW), which aims to probe irregularities at the Ministry
of National Education and schools across the country.

The watchdog has developed a nationwide network linking
several schools through volunteer students, teachers and others
in the field of education to collect data on financial
irregularities.

Besides obtaining this data, the watchdog is also to cooperate
with the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) in exchanging
information.

"We hope we can compile and process the data we collect and
publish it monthly for the public's consumption," NEW
spokesperson Sarasdewi said here on Monday.

The watchdog was formed in response to the high number of
corruption cases, such as irregularities, collusion and nepotism
in the disbursement of government funds.

Sarasdewi cited as example that in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam,
the government had promised to provide funds to build new schools
in place of those that had been razed in the war, but so far no
new schools had been built in the province. -- JP