T

he Jakarta Financial Management Body (BPKD) has found at least 18,000 budget items twice out of a total of 72,000 in the 2014 city budget.

BPKD head Endang Widjajanti said on Thursday that the 18,000 had been marked and would not be able to be used by the agencies or working units.

'€œWe have locked the budget, worth around Rp 1.8 trillion [US$ 157.6 million] using the new electronic budgeting [e-budgeting] system. The allocation can only be disbursed if the heads of the agencies make a specific request,'€ she said.

Endang said the findings were gathered from various sources, including reports from the agencies and other institutions.

'€œWe also received reports from NGOs and public groups who monitor the city administration budget spending,'€ she said, while declining to name the parties.

Endang said her agency was still examining the budgets, worth Rp 72 trillion in total, to look for more irregularities.

She said one of the explanations might be the budget'€™s poor planning from the related agencies. '€œIt could be that they'€™re careless or that they don'€™t coordinate with other units, allowing the items to be listed twice,'€ she said.

Previously, Education Agency head Lasro Marbun reported that his team found irregularities worth Rp 1.2 trillion in his agency'€™s budget.

Lasro said Rp 700 billion was from the double-listed items while the other Rp 500 billion could be from mark-ups or inefficient spending.

Regarding the findings of the Education Agency, Jakarta Governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo said that he would not report the irregularities to law enforcement agencies. However, he said that he had ordered his subordinates to reexamine the budget allocation.

'€œIt is hard to check the items one by one but we will look through them again for irregularities'€ he said.

Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) coordinator Ade Irawan said the city administration should investigate the irregularities to see whether they were merely administrative errors or were potentially related to graft.

'€œThe administration should make a detailed chart of the irregularities for the evaluation,'€ he said.

'€œThis [the chart] could start from seeing whether the double budget allocations occurred from the same unit or different ones,'€ Ade said.

According to Ade, Jakarta Governor and Deputy Governor have shown their political intent to reduce the potential for corruption.

'€œIt is an old habit, so it takes time and extra effort to change it,'€ he said.