BPKP 'not authorized' to audit KPK: President
Erwida Maulia, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 06/26/2009 6:37 PM
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono denied Friday allegations that he had instructed the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP) to conduct an audit on the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
The President also denied media reports suggesting he wanted to reduce the antigraft body’s sweeping powers, saying he was fully committed to the fight against corruption and that the public should look back on his track record over the past four-and-a-half years before leveling any accusations against him.
“I was surprised to read the media reports suggesting I had ordered the BPKP to audit the KPK. There has never been any presidential instruction ordering the BPKP to audit any institutions, because it already has its own job description,” Yudhoyono said at a press conference shortly before appearing at the commemoration of International Anti-Drug Day at Bung Karno Stadiun in Jakarta.
“The BPKP conducts audits on internal government institutions; it would therefore be outside of its jurisdiction to audit state institutions that are not under the president. I couldn’t possibly ask the BPKP to audit such institutions, including the KPK,” he said emotionally.
Yudhoyono added he would ask BPKP executives to nake a public clarification of the matter, which was prompted by a statement attributed to Yudhoyono in Thursday’s edition of the Kompas daily.
He was quoted as saying the KPK had such “extraordinary power that it seems to be responsible only to God”.
BPKP chief Didi Widiyadi and a team of auditors then visited the KPK office that same day to audit the antigraft commission’s financial reports.
Didi said although he had received no written order from the President to carry out the audit, he had construed the latter’s published statement as an early warning, and thus an indirect order.
| 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|