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Jakarta audit unveils more graft losses

Source
Reuters - June 28, 2000

Jakarta – Indonesia's state audit agency said yesterday that despite government efforts to tackle graft, millions of dollars had been wasted through corruption at major state companies and agencies in the fiscal year to end-March.

In a report to parliament, the audit agency said 1.05 trillion rupiah (S$206 million) had been lost through corruption at state oil firm Pertamina over the year, while 631 billion rupiah had gone astray at the Ministry of Investment and state enterprises and 213 billion at commodity regulator Bulog. The National Family Planning Board had lost 70 billion through corruption and the central bank 56 billion, it said.

"Among the results of the audit are findings that indicate significant corruption at a majority of ministries and non-departmental bodies," the audit agency said. It said among malpractices found were fictional contracts and irregularities in procuring goods.

Last year, a PricewaterhouseCoopers audit said Pertamina lost around US$4.7 billion between 1996 and 1998 through inefficiencies, mismanagement and corruption. Similar audits of other state institutions also found there had been heavy losses due to graft during the rule of former President Suharto.

President Abdurrahman Wahid, elected in October, has promised to make fighting corruption a priority. But analysts say graft remains rife at many state institutions.

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