Ombudsman to grill principals of 5 junior high schools in Jakarta

The Indonesian Ombudsman's office is scheduled to question five principals of junior high schools in Jakarta following reports from Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) of poor administration at those schools.

The meeting is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Tuesday.

“We have summoned the five principals for questioning. We also plan to summon the [Jakarta] Education Agency chief to the next questioning session,” Indonesian Ombudsman's office representative Budi Santoso said Monday as quoted by kompas.com.

Earlier, ICW reported the schools and the Jakarta Education Agency for their apparent failure to abide by a ruling made by the Information Council with the Central Information Commission (KIP), instructing all schools and the agency to submit receipts and copies of School Operational Aid (BOS) reports and Education Operational Aid (BOP) reports from 2007-2009 to the corruption watchdog.

The principals are from SMPN 190, SMPN 95, SMPN 84, SMPN 67 and SMPN 28.

Last week, Febri Hendri from ICW said the agency had refused to submit the receipts and budget reports, saying that the reports would only be made available to authorized governmental institutions such as the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) and the Development and Finance Surveillance Agency (BPKP).