T

he Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), three state-owned banks and the city administration signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Wednesday regarding the monitoring of city transactions to prevent budget misallocations.

The banks comprised Bank Mandiri, Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) and Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI).

BPK head Hadi Purnomo, Governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo, Bank Mandiri president director Budi Gunadi Sadikin, BNI president director Gatot Mudiantoro Suwondo and BRI president director Sofyan Basir attended the signing.

The MoU entitles the BPK to access all online transactions performed by the city administration through its accounts with the three banks.

Jakarta is the first regional government to enter into such a cooperation with the BPK.

'€œWe have handed over all information to the BPK. Now it can monitor all online transactions and audit them. This is a bad news for those wishing to misuse city funds,'€ Jokowi told reporters after the signing at the BPK office on Jl. Gatot Subroto in Central Jakarta.

Jokowi reiterated his commitment to prevent city budget misappropriation.

'€œWe want to minimize opportunities that allow people to conduct fraudulent practices,'€ he said, adding that '€œa transparent country will be a good country'€.

Hadi lauded the governor'€™s gesture and said the BPK was targeting similar cooperations with other regional administrations.

'€œThis agreement will allow us to apply e-audit financial tracking that will benefit the Jakarta administration,'€ he said.

The agency acknowledged that before the cooperation it had faced difficulties in monitoring transactions in the government'€™s bank accounts.

Now suspicious transactions will be immediately audited and investigated.

The cooperation is also expected to boost city revenues by minimizing fund leakage.

The legal basis for the MoU comes from Law No. 15/2004 on government fund management and audit and Law No. 15/2006 on the Supreme Audit Agency, which stipulates that the agency is entitled to request documents and to access data related to audits.

Law No. 17/2003 also stipulates that governors are obligated to compile and report financial data to the BPK.

The city administration allocates trillions of rupiah each year, and despite efforts by the Jokowi administration to combat corruption, fund misuse still occurs.

This year, the City Council approved a Rp 72 trillion (US$6.29 billion) city budget, 43.7 percent higher than last year'€™s Rp 50.1 trillion.

The city expects to earn Rp 62.21 trillion in revenue this year, up 53 percent from Rp 40.64 trillion last year.

The Jakarta Health Card (KJS) and Jakarta Smart Card (KJP) programs will get Rp 799.81 billion and Rp 2.05 trillion, respectively.