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Ahok reports budget irregularities to KPK
Shady dealings?: Jakarta Governor Basuki âAhokâ Tjahaja Purnama (right) answers reportersâ questions after reporting illegal budget allocations to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in Jakarta on Friday
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Shady dealings?: Jakarta Governor Basuki âAhokâ Tjahaja Purnama (right) answers reportersâ questions after reporting illegal budget allocations to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in Jakarta on Friday. Ahok said Jakarta City councilors secretly added Rp 12 trillion (US$92 million) to the cityâs budget this year for dubious projects.(Antara/Hafidz Mubarak) (right) answers reportersâ questions after reporting illegal budget allocations to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in Jakarta on Friday. Ahok said Jakarta City councilors secretly added Rp 12 trillion (US$92 million) to the cityâs budget this year for dubious projects.(Antara/Hafidz Mubarak)
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span class="inline inline-center">Shady dealings?: Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama (right) answers reporters' questions after reporting illegal budget allocations to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in Jakarta on Friday. Ahok said Jakarta City councilors secretly added Rp 12 trillion (US$92 million) to the city's budget this year for dubious projects. (Antara/Hafidz Mubarak)
Following the Jakarta City Council's exercise of its inquiry rights, Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama paid a visit to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) building in Central Jakarta on Friday to report irregularities totaling Rp 12.1 trillion (US$932 million) in the draft 2015 city budget ' in addition to irregularities found in the 2014 city budget.
Ahok brought with him two suitcases containing documents, as well as a single compact disc.
'These are all of the city administration's findings of irregularities in the 2014 budget and draft 2015 budget,' Ahok told reporters as he arrived at KPK headquarters, denying the report had anything to do with the councilors' exercise of their inquiry rights.
Previously, all 106 councilors signed a petition to exercise their inquiry rights against Ahok regarding the draft 2015 budget. The councilors allege Ahok violated 11 laws and regulations, accusing him of, among other transgressions, making unethical comments in violation of Law No. 23/2014 on regional administrations. They also claimed the governor rejected recommendations from the council's budgetary committee, thus violating Law No. 17/2014 on people's assembly, House of Representatives, Regional Representatives Councils and Regional Councils.
Ahok, who was accompanied by regional secretary Saefullah and Jakarta Financial Management Board (BPKD) head Heru Budi Hartono, was tight-lipped when asked about who was responsible for the alleged irregularities. 'We'll let the KPK take care of this,' he said.
Prior to visiting the KPK, Ahok met with President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo at the State Palace in Central Jakarta to consult with him about the rift with the council.
Ahok said Jokowi expressed support for a better and more transparent budgeting mechanism, through so-called 'e-budgeting'.
'[Jokowi said] there should be no compromise [in ensuring a clean budgeting mechanism] because he believes it is crucial that local budgets are not made vulnerable to corruption activity,' Ahok said.
Jokowi, Ahok added, also told him that bringing the allegations to law enforcers was a good move. When asked whether his meeting with Jokowi was an attempt to get Jokowi's support for his actions, Ahok demurred, saying, 'All this time, I've always got the President's backup. Why would you ask me that?'
The dispute over the draft budget has stalled many of this year's programs, but the Home Ministry, which evaluates and approves the budget before disbursement, said the exercise of inquiry rights would not hamper the process.
Ministry spokesman Dodi Riatmadji told The Jakarta Post that the 2015 city budget evaluation would proceed despite the council's decision to exercise its inquiry rights.
'The ministry is currently evaluating the draft budget submitted by the Jakarta administration. The evaluation will take several days,' Dodi said on Friday.
He added that the draft submitted by Ahok was already in line with the format set by the Home Ministry and was deemed fit for further evaluation. Previously, the council said that the draft budget submitted by the city to the ministry was 'illegal', as it had not been approved by councilors.
'The draft budget already has approval from the [Jakarta] City Council, as it bears a signature from Council Speaker [Prasetyo Edi Marsudi],' Dodi said over the phone Friday.
Meanwhile, councilor Ongen Sangaji of the Hanura Party, who has been appointed by councilors to head the investigation committee, said he was 'not playing around', and would 'find evidence'.
Ahok has accused councilors of manually tampering with the draft budget, which was in electronic form. He said he received a tip that councilors had employed staff to work around the clock for three days following the budget plenary session on Jan. 27 to make the alterations.
