T

he Supreme Audit Agency's (BPK) South Sumatra office has revealed graft cases in the province have caused an annual state loss of nearly Rp 20 billion (US$2 million) since 2004, with regional administrations' procurement divisions contributing the worst offenders.

Head of the BPK office's state and regional loss secretariat subdivision Eko Setyo Nugroho said the figure could be higher because many of the regencies and municipalities in the province had yet to report graft cases."But the graft trend is decreasing," he said in Palembeng on Friday.

Eko said only about 15 percent of graft cases reported to the BPK from 2004 to 2009 in South Sumatra had been handled.

However, the head of the central office's legal information and legislation sub-directorate, Kukuh Prionggo, said the office faced problems collecting the funds.

"Often when perpetrators are ordered to pay the fine in installments, the payments do not run smoothly," Kukuh said.

He said this was because sometimes the convicted had passed away, and their families refused to pay the installments, or sometimes the collateral went to the wrong party.

Separately, in Medan, North Sumatra Governor Syamsul Arifin ordered head of the provincial inspectorate Nurdin Lubis to investigate an alleged mass graft involving the teachers' incentive fund from the 2009 provincial budget.

The order was issued following reports from a number of parties that said the annual incentive of Rp 600,000 each for the province's 1,750,000 teachers had been cut to between Rp 50,000 and Rp 70,000.

Syamsul said this illegal cut might have been made in almost every regency and municipality across the province, including within the provincial administration offices and institutions. He added the practice might have been occurring for a long time without his knowledge.

"I have made this case a priority to investigate," Syamsul said Thursday.

"The teachers' incentive is provided to ease teachers' economic burdens - I am amazed these cuts were made." In the future, he said, he would invite the 27 regents and mayors of administrations who had received the teachers' incentive fund to clarify the report.

Head of the North Sumatra Communication and Information Agency Eddy Syofian said 27 of the province's 33 regencies and municipalities had disbursed funds. The six remaining yet to disburse funds are Tanjung Balai and Sibolga municipalities, and Nias, Dairi, Batubara and Padang Lawas regencies.

Eddy said if the six administrations did not disburse the funds by Dec. 31, the funds would be sent back to the central government. "The six regencies and municipalities will not receive the same fund next year if they fail to distribute them," he said.