T

he Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) has announced that it has found two irregularities in the University of Indonesia’s (UI) budget management that may have caused state losses of nearly Rp 45 billion (US$4.95 million).

BPK deputy chairman Rizal Djalil said the findings were enough for the BPK to alert law enforcers about possible corruption in the univeristy, which is one of the country’s oldest and largest.

He told reporters after officially handing over the audit to House of Representatives’ (DPR) deputy speaker Taufik Kurniawan on Thursday.

“We will immediately forward the audit report to the Corruption Eradication Commission [KPK] and we are hoping to see them follow it up as soon as possible,” Rizal said.

The first irregularity found by the BPK, according to Rizal, was the absence of coordination between UI rector Gumilar Rusliwa Somantri and the Finance Ministry in the university’s agreement in 2009 with local company PT Nurtirta Nusa Lestari (NNL) to develop 23,500 hectares of land in Cikini, Central Jakarta, for commercial purposes.

Based on the contract, UI will receive Rp 15 billion as a down payment and Rp 607 million annually between 2012 and 2039.

“The rector did not consult with or inform the Finance Ministry, which is responsible for managing the state’s assets, about the change of the land’s use, which we consider as a violation of several government regulations on state asset management,” he said, adding that the BPK had estimated that the land’s undervalue on the agreement could translate to possible state losses of Rp 41 billion.

The second violation was the university’s failure to absorb a portion of a loan provided by Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) to develop an education hospital on its campus on time, which led to the state paying JBIC a 38.5 million yen ($501,500) penalty recently, Rizal added.

UI’s spokesperson Devie Rahmawati said she could not comment on the BPK’s audit since the university had not yet received the report.

Separately, UI’s deputy rector for research, development and industrial cooperation, Sunardji, admitted that the cooperation between UI and NNL was under his supervision. He, however, declined to comment on the BPK’s findings.

The BPK ran the audit following a request from the KPK last month, which had earlier received reports from a group of UI academics about alleged irregularities surrounding several projects in the university throughout 2010.

The so-called Save UI group, which is represented by several well-known scholars, like Effendi Ghazali and Ade Armando, said there had been up to Rp 100 billion in irregularities during Gumilar’s tenure.

Ade said he was not surprised by the BPK’s findings.

“Unfortunately, the BPK only had a few weeks to conduct the audit. I believe it could have spotted more than just two cases if it were given more time,” he said.