The Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) has launched an investigation into alleged irregularities surrounding the national exams that led to delayed tests at 5,109 senior high schools in 11 provinces.

BPK commissioner Rizal Djalil said on Thursday that the agency had begun the investigation over the past two weeks and had received complete data on the budget for the exams.

'€œThe BPK will announce the report on the Education and Culture Ministry'€™s yearly performance in May. However, we can conduct a special investigation on the exam as early as possible, because this is concerning the public. We do not have to wait until the end of the year,'€ Rizal told reporters.

As previously reported, the national exam for senior high school students was scheduled to take place on April 15. However, 1.1 million high school students in the country'€™s central provinces failed to sit exams on schedule, after the printing company responsible for the provinces, PT Ghalia Indonesia Printing, failed to meet its deadline to deliver the exam material.

The ministry disbursed Rp 644.24 billion (US$66.29 million) for the national exams, with a total of Rp 120.59 billion allocated for both junior and senior high schools, and Rp 85.57 billion for elementary school examinations.

BPK commissioner Rizal Djalil said despite the large amount of state budget allocated for the ministry to hold the national exams, the exams were still marred by distribution problems. '€œWe will not only focus our investigation on the printing company, but also on why that company was selected, the tender process and the pricing,'€ he said.

Rizal said that the national exam for elementary schools was under better management because the printing and distribution were handled by regional administrations. '€œWe recommend the ministry to decentralize the printing and distribution authority to regional administrations, as this problem occurred only after the ministry decided to take over the responsibility in 2012,'€ he said.

'€œWe believe that the printing and the distribution of national exam materials can be done better under the supervision of the regional administration, in order to avoid future delays,'€ Rizal said.

Separately, Teuku Ramli Zakaria of the National Education Standard Body (BSNP) said that the ministry had decided to take over the printing and distribution in order to minimize the possibility of the exam materials being leaked. '€œWhen the authority to print and distribute the exam materials was decentralized, many printing companies with very poor qualifications won tenders and it was harder for the ministry to monitor leaks, so we decided to take responsibility,'€ he said.

'€œThe implementation of the national exams went well last year when we took over the authority. Therefore, what happened this year was solely misfortune,'€ he added.

Apart from delayed tests for senior high schools in the 11 provinces, the national exam was also marred with shortages in exam materials in almost every province in the country, forcing local administrations to photocopy the materials themselves. The ministry received a report that East Nusa Tenggara province had to disburse Rp 73 million from its regional budget to make copies of the materials for the students.

The Education and Culture Ministry'€™s inspectorate general secretary, Hindun Basri Purba, said the ministry would check the agreement between the ministry and the printing companies to determine who was responsible.

'€œWe will also investigate to see whether the amount really is Rp 73 million. We do not know that for sure,'€ he said.

Popular

Home Ministry wants to evaluate CFD because it often turns into pop-up markets

What’s behind the rise of new airlines in Indonesia?

Military court sentences soldier to death for killing three policemen