R

esearch group East Time on Schedule (ETOS) Indonesia Institute has claimed to have found markups totaling more than Rp 10 billion (US$757,611) at the Sports and Youth Agency and Parks and Cemetery Agency for the 2013 and 2014 budget years, after research conducted over six months.

ETOS communication director Iskandarsyah said that the group had reported the markups to Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama, along with evidence to support the findings.

'€œWe have reported the findings to the governor. We want to help uncover corruption and establish transparency in the Jakarta administration,'€ Iskandarsyah told reporters at City Hall in Central Jakarta after meeting with Ahok.

ETOS previously uncovered irregularities in the Transjakarta operating contract in 2012. The group found that the city administration'€™s contract with the Transjakarta operator disadvantaged the city. Transjakarta previously operated as a unit under the Transportation Agency.

Iskandrasyah went on to say that the markups were mostly found in allocations to disseminate information on various programs, such as the importance of exercise. The group, he said, had interviewed dozens of people, not only officials but also staff at the programs'€™ venues and the vendors of outfits made for the events.

'€œWe found that there were markups on all allocations in each program. Each allocation alone was marked up by at least Rp 250 million,'€ he said, adding that he had submitted evidence in the form of pictures, recordings and receipts, among many others.

The findings, Iskandarsyah said, strongly indicated that councilors of the 2009-2014 period cooperated with members of the executive to make the alleged markups possible.

'€œFurthermore, we suspect that the money was used by the councilors to campaign for another term,'€ he said.

Separately, Ahok said that he welcomed and appreciated all residents who came with such findings, as it would help the city administration to achieve transparency.

'€œWe'€™re glad that residents have the initiative to investigate the budget themselves. Many people have helped us to monitor the city budget,'€ Ahok told reporters at City Hall on Friday, citing the kawalapbd.org initiative created by IT experts Pahlevi Fikri Auliya and Ainun Najib.

The governor also acknowledged that markups were rampant in the city budget, and that electronic budgeting would greatly prevent such wrongdoing. He added that he had handed the documents from ETOS to the Jakarta Inspectorate for further investigation.

'€œMarkups are easy to input and hard to find. It'€™s a systematic practice that has been conducted for years and years. Marking up is one of the practices I reported to the KPK [Corruption Eradication Commission],'€ Ahok revealed.

The governor has introduced an e-budgeting system for the drafting of 2015 city budget, saying it would help bring about transparency.

Under the system, only a few members of the executive, including the governor, can access the budget to make changes.

Ahok is mired in a dispute with City Council over this year'€™s draft budget, with councilors accusing Ahok of illegally disrespecting their recommendations and Ahok in turn accusing them of issuing questionable budget allocations.

Ahok has uploaded the two draft versions to ahok.org and jakarta.go.id for the public to review the budgets.

Kawalapbd.org used the files to encourage netizens to check the drafts for dubious allocations, such as scanner and 3D printer procurement set at Rp 3 billion per school.