Ahok Finds a Bunch of Irregularities in Education Agency`s Budget

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama is placing a lot of scrutiny on budget proposals submitted by agencies under his administration for 2016 - a move driven by a surprising numbers of mark-ups in the proposal submitted by the Culture and Tourism Agency.

Just as he finalised his review of the Culture and Tourism Agency, the governor found even more irregularities in the proposal submitted by the Education Agency.

"We found a lot of unnecessary expenditures - many of which I immediately crossed out because it makes no sense at all," said Ahok at the City Hall on Friday, November 20, 2015.

The governor said that the majority of irregularities in the proposal submitted by the Education Agency are fees and payouts for activities arranged by the Agency's sub-divisions. "I found in the proposal that the fee for a temporary staff who will only be employed for four days to operate a scanner comes up to Rp12 million," he said.

"What's worse, is that the disguise for such foul play is by stating that such fees will be paid to a 'programmer'," continued Ahok. "It's a scanner! My nine year old child could operate scanners, there really is no need for a specialised programmer."

Worse still, "there are staffs that will get paid Rp57 million to work for six days," he said. 

Ahok explained that there are many more irregularities that he had managed to vet out. "It's sad that there are people within my Administration who believes that they can simply get away with it," he said. "Education funds should go where it is needed the most - building repairs as well improving school facilities."

The governor said that he will immediately seek out members of his Administration that included bogus calculations in the 2016 Budget proposal. "These people need to be dismissed. Once we clear out the system of the bad seeds, we shall see some improvements in 2016 and 2017," he said.

ANGELINA ANJAR SAWITRI