T

he central government'€™s plan to encourage better regional budget absorption by providing more legal protection to public officials against graft convictions could likely be exploited by corrupt bureaucrats, antigraft activists have warned.

Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Minister Yuddy Chrisnandi said on Tuesday that the ministry was currently drafting a Government Regulation (PP) to implement Law No. 30/2014 on government administration that would allow public officials to use their discretion to spend regional budgets as long as it was for the public interest.

'€œWe have a legal umbrella that is enough to protect government officials so they won'€™t be sent to jail. As long as an official carries out a tender with no intention to enrich himself or other people and carries out the project for the greater good, then he or she will only get administrative sanctions if he or she is proven to be guilty,'€ Yuddy told reporters on Tuesday.

Yuddy said that while conducting tenders and procurements, if government officials inadvertently caused losses to the state, they would only be required to repay the losses without having to face prosecution.

'€œIf the mistake was not meant to enrich himself or other people and it was purely due to carelessness and a lack of due diligence, then they cannot be imprisoned. They will only be asked to return the state losses [they caused],'€ he said.

Donal Fariz of the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) said that the legal protection could be a setback in the country'€™s battle against corruption.

'€œIf irregular regional budget spending is considered only administrative snafu, then ill-intentioned officials would not think twice about committing graft,'€ he told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. '€œIn spite of the antigraft law, people still misappropriate regional budgets; what would happen if the central government gave them legal protection?'€

According to Yuddy, the legal protection is necessary to prevent government officials from being prosecuted by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) or the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO) for making errors in budget spending.

Currently, many government officials in the regions have been reluctant to spend regional budgets for capital expenditure, including infrastructure development such as roads and bridges and other public services in the health-care and education sectors.

This reluctance had caused up to Rp 255 trillion (US$19 billion) of regional funding to sit idle in the accounts of regional administrations, Yuddy claimed. At least 32 percent of total spending in the revised 2015 state budget has been earmarked for transfers to regions, set at Rp 643 trillion this year.

'€œThat'€™s a huge number and we ask all regional policy makers to immediately spend this money and speed up tenders,'€ he said.

Last year at least Rp 116 trillion that was meant for regional spending was never disbursed because there was no demand, according to data from the Regional Autonomy Watch (KPPOD). A year earlier, in 2013, the figure was Rp 99 trillion, suggesting that the amount of unused funding is increasing.

The Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (FITRA), meanwhile, said that the central government should not shift the blame for slow budget absorption onto regional governments.

'€œThis problem has dragged on for a long time. Why? Because the central government is often late in disbursing the funds. They transferred the money in April. So if the budget has failed to be absorbed until today, then blame the central government,'€ FITRA secretary-general Yenny Sucipto told the Post on Tuesday.

She said that legal protection which allowed discretionary regional budget spending could encourage officials to commit graft.

'€œIf a public official violates existing regulations and his or her actions lead to state losses, then he or she could be taken to court,'€ Yenny said. '€œAny project worth more than Rp 200 million has to go through a tender. You can'€™t get around the regulation.'€