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everal University of Indonesia (UI) academics are saying they have found irregularities in the disbursement of state funds from UI’s budget.

Some university deans, lecturers and students gathered at a hall at UI’s computer science school in Depok, West Java, on Monday to announce some of the irregularities.

Ade Armando, a lecturer at UI’s School of Social and Political Sciences, said that Rp 1.15 million (US$133.40) a month was allocated between October and January to feed the pets kept at the official residence of rector Gumilar Rusliwa Somantri and another Rp 44 million paid for an eight-page exclusive interview Gumilar gave to a business and lifestyle magazine.

“The money used for pet food was recorded by the university administration’s office center as money to supply [food and drink] for meetings at UI,” Ade said.

Ade attributed the suspect transactions to a lack of checks and balances governing the university’s financial system.

Djoko Santoso, the National Educational Ministry’s higher education director general, told The Jakarta Post that state universities should follow the law governing the financial accountability of state institutions.

He declined to comment on the alleged financial irregularities or if ministry was already aware of the accusations.

The Supreme Audit Agency announced on July 13 that there were 43 unregistered accounts at state universities including two at Semarang Polytechnic worth Rp 146.24 million, one account at Lampung University (Rp 8.34 million) and four accounts at Jakarta State Polytechnic (Rp 1.32 billion).

Febri Hendri of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) told the Post that most state universities had poor financial management systems.

“Last May, we sent letters to North Sumatra University, Andalas University of West Sumatra, the University of Indonesia, Bandung Institute of Technology, the Bogor Agricultural University, Gadjah Mada University, Airlangga University and Hasanuddin University to request access to their financial reports and received a response only from Hassanuddin University,” he said.

Febri, who leads the ICW’s division monitoring public service institutions, said that the public had a right to know about the financial management of all public service institutions, including state universities. (msa)