The Stench of a Suspicious Audit

The Supreme Audit Board's (BPK) audit of Jakarta's 2014 budget shows signs of irregularities and deviations. Although it was given an 'unqualified opinion' score, the audit has nevertheless triggered suspicions of a conflict of interest concerning Efdinal, the Jakarta BPK's director himself. When the BPK audit team set out to investigate the Jakarta administration's finances, Efdinal turned out to be the 'broker' of a disputed land case that the auditors were scrutinizing. Representing three residents of Pondok Kopi in eastern Jakarta, Efdinal had urged the Jakarta administration to buy a plot of land the size of a football field, which had formerly been a cemetery.

Indications of the abuse of authority became obvious when Efdinal turned the audit draft report as a weapon to 'negotiate.' To a number of Jakarta officials last April, Efdinal promised to erase any irregularities in the purchase of of the Sumber Waras Hospital land, which had been carried out by the Health Unit. The condition, once again, was that the Jakarta government purchase the cemetery land in Pondok Kopi. The extent of Efdinal's influence in the final audit report remains to be seen. But the fact is that last July, the BPK announced 70 suspected irregularities in the management of Jakarta's budget. The BPK questioned, among others, the purchase of the Sumber Waras Hospital as being too expensive at about Rp191 billion.

December 1, 2015