T

he Education and Culture Ministry launched an internal probe into the botched national exams, a move graft watchdogs said had been made to shift the blame to lower-raking officials.

Ibnu Hamad, Education and Culture Ministry spokesperson, said on Wednesday that the ministry's inspectorate general had completed its investigation of the exam delays in 11 provinces.

Ibnu said that much of the blame could be pinned on the organizers of the exam, the National Education Standard Body (BSNP), and the ministry's research and development unit (Balitbang).

'It is possible that people within the ministry could be held responsible for the exam delays,' Ibnu told the Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Despite the investigation, she said the ministry would not publish the results anytime soon.

Separately, a fiasco at the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (FITRA), Uchok Sky Khadafi, said the probe would unlikely uncover much as those responsible for the mess were the ministry 'decision makers'.

'They [are trying] to save those high up,' Uchok said on Wednesday, adding that the ministry should just hand the case over to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

'The difference between the initial exam budget and the approved budget, which led to the Finance Ministry blocking the disbursement of it, should also be probed, because it involves the House of Representatives,' he said referring to his suggestion that the case should be happened over to the KPK.

As reported earlier, the Finance Ministry blocked the disbursement of budget for the national exams, as the initial budget ' as stated in Presidential Decree No. 37/2012 ' was Rp 544 billion (US$56 million), with 14.08 million participating students and a unit cost of Rp 39,000 per student.

However, the version of the budget proposed by the Education and Culture Ministry ' and approved by the House of Representatives ' was Rp 644 billion, for 12.23 million participating students with a unit cost of Rp 53,000 per student.

The Finance Ministry had no other choice than to disburse the funds in March, following the finalization of contracts to print the materials.

Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) researcher Ade Irawan said that a probe should not only be aimed at lower-ranking officials or government contractors.

'More than the bureaucracy and the printing company should be investigated because they are not the people behind the policy,' Ade said.