Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Transparency International Indonesia (TII), a group devoted to fighting corruption, has estimated that the presidential candidates for the July 5 election failed to report a total of Rp 288 billion (US$31.3 million) in campaign funds to the General Elections Commission (KPU).
Monitoring conducted by 650 TII volunteers in 19 regions showed that the candidates spent Rp 579 billion on campaigning, almost double their reported expenditure, which amounted to Rp 291 billion. "There is a big discrepancy between the actual and reported spending," TII secretary general Emmy Hafild told the press here on Thursday.
The non-governmental organization said the campaign funds of each presidential candidate was far higher than what was reported to the KPU. She suspected the gap occurred because numerous campaign activities in the regions were not recorded in the presidential candidates' accounts.
According to the TII findings, the pair of Megawati Soekarnoputri and Hasyim Muzadi topped the list with Rp 118 billion in campaign funds which were unaccounted for. They reported only Rp 84 billion in campaign spending.
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his running mate Jusuf Kalla placed second for reporting only Rp 71 billion out of their total expenditure, which amounted to Rp 143 billion according to the TII.
The Wiranto-Solahuddin Wahid pairing spent Rp 138 billion but reported only Rp 86 billion, while Amien Rais and Siswono Yudo Husodo disbursed Rp 75 billion but claimed they spent Rp 30 billion. The team of Hamzah Haz and Agum Gumelar spent Rp 21 billion, or Rp 5 billion above what they reported.
Ahsan Jamet Hamidi, a staff member at TII, said the NGO volunteers calculated the spending based on media advertisements and the campaign activities in the regions involving the candidates.
"We also cooperated with AC Nielsen to estimate the campaign expenditures on ads in 168 print media, 14 television stations, and 17 radio stations," he told The Jakarta Post.
Commenting on the TII report, Alwi Hamu, a member of the Susilo-Kalla campaign team, said the confusion occurred because his team enjoyed discounts when placing advertisements.
"It's a big mistake [of TII to assume the cost of our campaign ads]. We paid usually between 10 percent and 15 percent of the normal price for a lot of those ads," Alwi told the Post.
Responding to TII suspicion that the expenses during campaigns in regions were not incorporated in the campaign budget, Alwi said many of the campaign events in regional areas were funded by local supporters.
He said supporters of the Susilo-Kalla pair spent their own money on such things as T-shirts and pamphlets. "It is impossible for us to calculate how much they spent," he said.
The Megawati-Hasyim campaign team could not be reached for comment. Susilo and Megawati will a running in the final vote for president – on September 20.
Emmy and Jamet said they were skeptical of the two presidential candidates' commitment to corruption eradication given the fact that they were not entirely transparent about their campaign funding. "Transparency is the key to corruption eradication. With their report lacking transparency, we doubt their commitment," Emmy said.