Indra Harsaputra, Surabaya – In a bid to help prevent misappropriation in the use of the school operational aids (BOS) fund, the Surabaya municipal administration is to draft a bylaw on transparency in the use of the fund.

Head of the municipal education agency, Sahudi, said the bylaw was now in the deliberation process at the executive level. Once issued, he said, it could serve as a legal base for the community to control the use of the fund.

"With the bylaw, schools will be no longer able to withdraw money from the people whenever they want. It will also give sanctions to violators."

This year, the central government increased the BOS fund, which is provided to help achieve the 9-year compulsory education across the country, from previous Rp 11.2 trillion to Rp 16 trillion presently.

With the increase, students of both elementary and junior high schools receive financial educational aid of between Rp 397,000 and Rp 575,000 a year. Apart from this, additional funds are also provided by their respective regency/municipal administrations.

Surabaya, for example, provides between Rp 62,000 and Rp 152,000 per month to students of elementary, junior high and senior high schools in the region. With both funds, the schools are expected to withdraw no more educational levies from the public.

Sahudi said, only privately run schools were allowed to withdraw money from the public as educational investment fund, for example to rehabilitate buildings, school area expansion, buy educational equipments and other needs, especially because their operational funds were not fully supported by the regional BOS program.

"I do hope the bylaw will be issued soon to prevent uncertainty in the allowed educational levies as well as improve transparency in the use of the BOS fund," he said.

Sahudi said to help control the use of the BOS fund, his office had been conducting a routine monitoring once every three months on the use of the BOS fund at the schools across the region.

"The problem is, we will not be able to apply strict actions against misappropriation as we don't have the legal basis," he said.

Sahudi said that what his office could do when discovering fund misappropriation was to halt its distribution. If it was considered a crime then it would report so to the police.

Separately a member of the BOS program technical team at the National Education Ministry's Elementary and High Education Management Directorate General, Budi Susetyo welcomed the planned bylaw, saying it would help create effective, professional, transparent and accountable implementation of the program.

"Some regions including Magelang and Semarang have also had their own bylaws on BOS program," Budi told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

He added that in some regions, such as in the Bangka Belitung's regency of Belitung and in Jakarta, the respective heads of the regions had even issued decrees regulating the use and control of the BOS fund.