Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – The acting civil emergency administrator in Aceh has asked the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to verify reports of malfeasance in the use of Rp 6 trillion (US$6.8 billion) in state funds allocated for the first six months of the state of civil emergency in the province.
Acting Civil Emergency Administrator Insp. Gen. Bachrumsyah Kasman said each of the officials in charge of monitoring the implementation of the integrated operations had conducted internal audits on the use of the funds. "But to prevent people from being suspicious, I want the KPK to verify the audit findings," he said on Friday. He said he would not hesitate to bring to justice any officials who were found to have misused the state funds.
Human rights group Imparsial reported that the military operation alone had cost the state not less than Rp 3 trillion since martial law was imposed in Aceh in May last year.
Bachrumsyah would not say whether the KPK auditors would come to Aceh to conduct their investigations, but promised that "the audit will take place in a very near future." He was appointed the acting civil emergency administrator by the government of former president Megawati Soekarnoputri after the KPK named Governor Abdullah Puteh a suspect for inflating the budget for the procurement of a Russian-made helicopter in 2002. The governor is slated to go on trial in the Anticorruption Court in December.
As the civil emergency administrator, Bahrumsyah is responsible for synchronizing the disbursement of state funds to finance the integrated operations in the province and for supervising the implementation of the operations to restore security, enforce the law, provide humanitarian assistance, boost economic recovery and strengthen local government.
For the law enforcement operation alone, Bachrumsyah said the province received Rp 6 billion every month from National Police Headquarters.
The Aceh Police are currently handling 38 corruption cases that implicate government officials at the provincial, regental and municipality levels.
His administration also receives funds from Indonesian Military (TNI) headquarters for the law enforcement operation, but he said that some of this money was also used for the security operation. "Well, you know, the soldiers and police personnel in the field would shoot us if we deducted a penny from their daily allowances," he said.
After one year of martial law, the government reduced the emergency status of the province to a state of civil emergency on May 19 on the grounds that the security condition there had greatly improved. Despite this, the security operation to crush the insurgency in the province was continuing.
Bachrumsyah said that Free Aceh Movement (GAM) insurgents remained a threat as they still numbered between 2,500 and 3,000, and were equipped with 800 firearms.