Rizky Amelia – A leading budget watchdog has highlighted what it claims is the misuse of emergency-related funding for presidential overhead expenses.

The misappropriation is believed to amount to around Rp 102.5 billion ($10.6 million).

Uchok Sky Khadafi, the investigation and advocacy coordinator for the National Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra), said on Sunday that the finding stems from an audit into funding allocation, called BA 999.08, meant specifically for "incidental and emergency" matters.

"There is an indication that the use of the BA 999.08 funds violated the state finance law and a Finance Ministry regulation on transferring already allocated funding into the funds of certain ministries or government institutions," Uchok said.

The indication of violation, Uchok continued, came from the fact that the BA 999.08 fund was used to cover the operational costs related to overseas trips by the president and his retinue, as well as working government meetings presided over by the president.

The fund, Uchok argued, was meant to be used for emergency-related matters such as disaster relief but was instead spent on overhead costs that were not considered urgent in nature and were already provided for under a separate allocation.

"Activities such as overseas visits by the president and his entourage are considered a routine expense and as such should be paid for out of the BA 007 allocation, not BA 999.08, which is for incidental or emergency matters," he said.

He added that over the past year, the State Palace had spent Rp 102.5 billion from the BA 999.08 fund. It still has another Rp 53.5 billion that it can take from the fund. The palace's total budget for the year is Rp 1.9 trillion.