BPKP: Govt Still Buying Plenty of Imported Goods

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Muhammad Yusuf Ateh, head of the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP), said that although local products have dominated the national e-catalog, the Ministry of Regional Institutions and State-Owned Enterprises still purchases a lot of imported goods.

"Based on BPKP's supervision, there are at least 842 imported products purchased through e-catalogs [even though] the locally-made versions are available," Ateh said at the 2022 Government Coordination Meeting for Internal Control in Jakarta, Tuesday, June 14.

Ateh said that the government's actual spending on local goods had only reached Rp180.72 trillion or 45.18 percent of the Rp400 trillion target.

He said that one of the reasons for reluctance to buy local goods is because they are more expensive than their import counterparts. According to the results of BKPB's test sample, of the 853 imported products purchased, 560 or about 66 percent are cheaper than local products.

Ateh said BPKP had identified problems at the expenditure planning stage. The government has difficulty identifying expenditures that can be optimized to absorb domestic products.

"The lack of a comprehensive reference list on domestic products with good TKDN (domestic content level) is one of the factors causing difficulties in planning for purchasing local products," he said.

According to Ateh, the use of government spending should be maximized to absorb local goods to provide maximum benefits to domestic economic activities. This requires reinforcement in the governance of effective internal control and supervision.

Addressing the types of imported goods that are not made locally, Ateh said that the development of related industries must be encouraged.  

Riani Sanusi Putri

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