Minimizing Fraud, BPKP Monitors Regional Finances Ahead of Regional Elections
The value of financial fraud in the regions discovered by BPKP in 2023 is IDR 548 billion. Because of this, BPKP is now preventing it.
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Aceh Province Financial and Development Supervisory Agency.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Regional Revenue and Expenditure Budgets or APBD managed by regional governments are vulnerable to fraud, including misuse for the purposes of electing regional heads by incumbent. Common and misused fund allocations include distributing social and welfare programs in the form of goods, money and infrastructure to influence people's political preferences when voting in pilkada.
Therefore, surveillance over regional finances is very important so that the budget that has been planned for the sake of improving development in the area does not shift for the interests of winning the regional elections.
Supervisory institutions such as the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP) or law enforcement officials such as the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) have a big role in this monitoring process. Likewise, the role of other law enforcement officials, such as the Attorney General's Office and the Indonesian National Police, contributes greatly to preventing and minimizing misuse of budget and authority.
BPKP Spokesperson, Gunawan Wibisono, stated that BPKP is committed to promoting and monitoring financial accountability and performance in the implementation of the simultaneous regional elections in 2024, which will take place on November 27, 2024. One of the efforts is for BPKP to oversee potential misuse of local government budgets, which are politicized for the victory of regional head candidates, even though the election will be held on November 27.
Also read: BPKP Finds Fraud of IDR 37.01 Trillion, Methods Are Increasingly Complex
"To minimize the potential misuse of regional budget funds, BPKP conducts planning and budgeting evaluations in regions through 34 BPKP representatives spread across Indonesia," said Gunawan when contacted in Jakarta on Saturday (27/4/2024).
In this monitoring process, BPKP involves the government's internal supervisory apparatus (APIP) of ministries/agencies and regional governments (pemda). BPKP also collaborates with the Main Inspectorate of the General Elections Commission (KPU), the Main Inspectorate of the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu), as well as provincial, district, or municipal inspectorates.
In previous regional elections, many incumbents tried to utilize their resources as holders of local budget authority to distribute social and welfare programs.
The use of public funds in simultaneous regional elections is not a new thing. In previous years' elections, many incumbent officials have tried to utilize the resources they have as holders of regional budget authority to distribute social and welfare programs. In other words, the use of public funds by active regional heads is an effort to open up opportunities for political support from voters who violate laws and democratic regulations.
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Approaching the Banyumas Regional Election, a number of billboards have appeared in several locations in Purwokerto, Banyumas, Central Java on Wednesday (24/4/2024). A billboard with a picture of H. Rachmad Imanda, the Chairman of Gerindra Faction in the Banyumas Regional House of Representatives, with Prabowo-Gibran written as "Maturnuwun Kabupaten Banyumas: Pilpres Menang, Pilkada Kemudian" is seen on Jenderal Sudirman Street, Purwokerto.
Investigative audit reveals fraud
The strict supervision from BPKP is not without reason. Gunawan revealed that in the past three years, BPKP has dealt with allegations of fraud in regions that have been followed up through state loss calculation audits and investigative audits. In 2023, the value of financial fraud in regions discovered by BPKP amounted to Rp 548 billion.
If viewed more broadly, investigative audits have revealed fraud committed by the BPKP within the civil servant apparatus (ASN), state-owned enterprises, and even private entities in 2022, amounting to Rp 37.01 trillion. That year, the BPKP was able to prevent a potential budget loss of Rp 76.32 trillion due to fraud.
There are many risks of fraud starting from planning, budgeting, procurement of goods and services, to licensing.
From planning to permits
When contacted separately, the Coordinator of the National Corruption Prevention Strategy Implementation (Stranas PK), Pahala Nainggolan, said that the regional budget (APBD)can be monitored through the Regional Government Information System (SIPD) to prevent it from being misused for the sake of the regional elections.
Pahala explained that if there is a shift in the use of the budget, it can be recorded in the SIPD. For example, when there is a budget for renovating a school which then shifts to social assistance (bansos), it will be monitored in the SIPD. This is because the local government's budget has already been set for 2023.
KPK's Deputy for Prevention, Pahala Nainggolan (left), welcomed the arrival of the Head of the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP), Muhammad Yusuf Ateh, before holding a meeting at the KPK building in Jakarta on Thursday (20/2/2020). The meeting between BPKP and KPK discussed the cooperation between the two institutions.
"If something shifts, we want to write to the acting regional heads to discipline (use) their budgets," said the Deputy for Prevention and Monitoring of the Corruption Eradication Commission.
The issue of the misuse of regional budget for the interests of the incumbent has become a classic problem ahead of elections. In the 2020 regional elections, social aid during the Covid-19 pandemic was misused for popularity purposes, as was done by the incumbent regent of Klaten, Central Java, Sri Mulyani.
At the time, residents reported to the Central Java Ombudsman a suspicion of covert campaigning through social assistance aid that featured a photo and name of Sri Mulyani. Several hashtags relating to the misuse of social assistance aid for the Klaten Regent's campaign briefly trended on Twitter, including #ShamefulKlatenRegent and #CoronaNotAPoliticalStage.
The issue of misuse of regional budgets for the interests of incumbents is a classic problem ahead of regional elections.
Various proposals to address this issue have been put forward for a long time. Among them are suggestions for incumbents who run for reelection in the local elections to resign from their positions and campaign cost restrictions.
Executive Director of the Committee for Monitoring the Implementation of Regional Autonomy, Herman N Suparman, said that the incumbent usually collects a lot of money when the stages of the Regional Head Election begin because they need increasingly larger funds.
Herman N Suparman
They can utilize the regional budget or programs implemented in the past two years for their own interests. In addition, incumbents can also employ non-program policies or social assistance programs to gain public sympathy. As a result, incumbent regional leaders who are still in office until the elections are held are vulnerable to using their power and regional finances for their own interests.
Not only incumbents, but also interim regional heads need to be wary of. This is because they can use the regional budget for their own interests or to assist certain regional head candidates. This is especially true for interim regional heads who work at the level of regent and mayor.
They can abuse their authority for the benefit of gubernatorial candidates. Because they are the governor's choice.
Therefore, Herman is urging for supervision of regional finances by BPKP and KPK to be done starting now. BPKP and KPK need to hold the local budgets of each region as a basis for monitoring.
He emphasized that the basis for monitoring regional finances already exists because the budget for the region was approved at the end of last year. Therefore, BPKP and KPK have a handle on the realization of the budget that has been set in the APBD draft.
BPKP and KPK can involve non-governmental elements from the region to oversee, such as civil society groups, mass media, and academics in the region. He can no longer expect much from APIP, which is part of the regional government.
"If we rely on the accountability of local government itself, in our opinion, it is somewhat difficult to hope for. Because in the context of the regions, regents, mayors, and governors have significant power to regulate budget programs," said Herman.
According to Herman, in order to reach a wider audience, the digital reporting system needs to be strengthened. The SIPD can be used as a basis for supervision. However, another system needs to be activated that can be used by BPKP and KPK as an access for the community to provide reports. This is because the SIPD is administrative in nature and contains qualitative data.
