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Jakarta Post

Ahok reveals history of suspicious budget allocations

Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama says that “dana siluman”, or suspicious budget allocations, in the administration from 2012 to 2014 reached Rp 43

Dewanti A. Wardhani and Haeril Halim (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, March 27, 2015 Published on Mar. 27, 2015 Published on 2015-03-27T08:18:31+07:00

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Ahok reveals history of suspicious budget allocations

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overnor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama says that '€œdana siluman'€, or suspicious budget allocations, in the administration from 2012 to 2014 reached Rp 43.6 trillion (US$3.3 billion) in several agencies, mainly the Education Agency and the Public Works Agency.

Ahok said that such allocations were a result of cooperation between individuals in the administration and the City Council and were proposed in the form of official suggestions by the council.

Ahok said such suggestions from the City Council were legal, as long as they were in the form of programs and were proposed months before the budget'€™s approval.

According to Government Regulation No. 16/2010 on the City Council code of conduct, the council'€™s budgetary committee is tasked with making suggestions for the draft budget in the form of advice and opinions at least five months before the budget is approved.

'€œHowever, the councilors proposed the programs just days before the budget'€™s approval. They did not propose [general] programs, but [detailed] projects, and included the value of the projects. This is beyond their rights as councilors,'€ he announced to reporters at City Hall on Thursday.

'€œFor example, in 2014 alone, dana siluman totaled Rp 8.4 trillion. The UPS [uninterruptible power supplies] are just the tip of the iceberg,'€ Ahok said.

In a document Ahok revealed to reporters, the council'€™s Commission E, which oversaw social welfare in 2014, allocated a '€œpackage deal'€ for about a dozen senior high schools across Jakarta, which consisted of UPS, digital classroom equipment, 3D printers and scanners and '€œmodern science equipment'€. In total, the '€œpackage deal'€ cost roughly Rp 21 billion for each school.

Further, Commission D overseeing development suggested hundreds of programs for the then Public Works Agency, which had not been discussed with the administration.

For example, the councilors allocated Rp 170 billion to fix damaged roads on Transjakarta corridors one, four and seven. However, the Rp 170 billion was not spent. In total, the councilors made inputs totaling at least Rp 1.5 trillion in additional allocations to the Public Works Agency. This year, the agency was split into the Bina Marga (Roads) Agency and the Water Management Agency.

'€œSuch practices go way back. This is a tradition between the administration and the councilors, to compromise and cooperate to misuse the money,'€ Ahok said.

On the same day, Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) reported irregularities in the 2014 budget with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

ICW public service monitoring division coordinator Febri Hendri said the report included estimated price markups during tenders.

Febri said the tender committee from the Goods and Services Procurement Unit allegedly had a backdoor agreement with UPS tender participants.

'€œFor example, the tender committee used a price ceiling from three distributors - PT Istana Multimedia, PT Duta Cipta Artha and PT Offistarindo Adhiprima. However, the price of the same goods with the same specifications in the market is only Rp 800 million, not Rp 1.8 billion like in the contract and the price offered by all tender participants,'€ Febri said.

He added that the ICW had reported two administration officials identified as AU and ZN, and hundreds of tender participants. Febri said there were indications of involvement from councilors, but declined to identify which ones as investigations were ongoing.

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