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n investigation led by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in 20 regencies and cities has found that the management of the country'€™s 2014 Rp 368 trillion (US$29.4 billion) education budget is marred with irregularities that may lead to corruption.

The government allocated professional allowance totaling Rp 58.2 trillion for 965,758 certified teachers at both private and state schools in 2014. The KPK found that officials at regional education agencies collected illegal payments of up to Rp 300,000 per teacher when disbursing their Rp 3 million allowance every three months.

The Rp 5.8 trillion excludes trillions of rupiah the government allocated for the same program for hundreds of thousands of certified teachers who are stationed at religion-based schools managed by the graft-ridden Religious Affairs Ministry.

'€œTeachers have lost up to Rp 1 trillion every year due to such practices. This is a bad example in our education sector. This finding should serve as a lesson for related institutions to improve next year'€™s disbursement of teachers'€™ professional allowance,'€ KPK Chairman Abraham Samad told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

As the government is set to allocate up to Rp 80 trillion for the same program next year, Abraham said the KPK had handed over its findings to the Culture and Elementary and Secondary Education Ministry and other related institutions to improve budget disbursement prudence next year.

'€œIn the 20 regencies and cities we surveyed, we collected evidence of the illegal levies. We found money at the offices of officials at regional education agencies,'€ KPK spokesman Priharsa Nugraha said.

Illegal levies were also found to have been pocketed in the School Operational Assistance (BOS) program.

The KPK said many state schools were collecting illegal payments from parents who paid the levies over fears that their children'€™s BOS funds would be canceled by the schools if they failed to do so.

'€œWe also found that many principals used BOS funds to pay for their personal expenses. Principles have full control over the disbursement of BOS funds, which is against the law. The BOS funds are also used to fund the school visits of superintendents from local education agencies. To cover up all the irregularities, officials at schools made fake reports,'€ Priharsa said.

The government disburses Rp 580,000 per year for each elementary school student, Rp 710,000 for junior high school students and Rp 1 million for high school students.

The KPK has also found irregularities plaguing the scholarships for poor students (BSM) program, which disburses Rp 450,000 per year for each elementary school student, Rp 750,000 for junior high school students and Rp 1 million for high school students.

Commenting on the KPK'€™s investigation, Culture and Elementary and Secondary Education Minister Anies Baswedan said his office would follow up on the findings.

'€œThe findings are very detailed. We have to follow up on them. If we don'€™t have a comprehensive strategy to manage our education fund, then our educational goals will not be achieved,'€ Anies said in a statement.

Religious Affairs Ministry inspector general M. Jasin said that his office, along with the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP), had also conducted an investigation into the professional allowance program for teachers registered at the ministry.

'€œThe audit found that many teachers on the list are not eligible to receive the funds. We excluded them right away from the list. We were supposed to pay Rp 4.3 trillion, but thanks to the audit we only had to pay around Rp 1.9 trillion,'€ Jasin told the Post on Sunday.