Jakarta – A corruption watchdog said it had unearthed alleged corruption in the procurement of textbooks at some elementary schools in Depok, West Java, since 2015.
Corruption Watch Independent (CWI), an NGO based in Depok, added that the alleged corruption had caused state losses of Rp 4 billion (US$290,000) a year, bringing the total toRp 12 billion as of last year.
CWI's head, Elfatir Lintang, said it had found evidence and reported their findings to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on April 12. "The KPK assured us that it will investigate our evidence because it is valid," Elfatir said on Tuesday, as quoted by wartakota.tribunnews.com.
He added that the procurement of textbooks at 267 state elementary schools in the city was free because it was procured through the school operational aid fund.
Elfatir said most of the schools allegedly asked the students to buy their textbooks at bookstores. "From around 128,000 students, we found that at least 20 percent were asked to buy the textbooks," he alleged.
The students' parents, he added, paid up to Rp 300,000 for the textbooks. CWI also allegedly found that some schools gave students copies, which they had to pay for as well.
Elfatir said it had questioned several schools about the findings and they had blamed the publishers who were late in distributing the textbooks that were also found to have been sold at some bookstores. (wnd)