Aditya Suharmoko, Jakarta – The Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) said Tuesday it had found some irregularities in Indonesia's energy sector that might indicate corruption, after auditing the 2007 financial reports of government agencies and ministries.
BPK chairman Anwar Nasution said the 2007 non-tax revenue and income tax on oil and gas, worth Rp 106.93 trillion (US$10.86 billion), were not transparently reported by contractors.
He said the proceeds were not directly transferred to the state's account in accordance with the state budget mechanism but instead to other accounts held by local administrations.
The BPK on Tuesday submitted its audit on the 2007 financial reports of government agencies, ministries and local administration institutions to the House of Representatives with a disclaimer opinion.
Udju said the BPK would continue investigating irregularities in the oil and gas sector, with a special task from the House to probe the oil and gas swap between Chevron Pacific Indonesia and ConocoPhillips, and the exploration and production of state oil and gas firm PT Pertamina.
He said the BPK expected to finish the investigation in November and submit the results to the House soon afterward.
According to the BPK report, state power firm PLN and Pertamina allegedly misused electricity and fuel subsidies allocated in the 2007 budget.
Anwar said the BPK found that PLN revised down the subsidy amount from Rp 39.26 trillion, as stated in the revised 2007 state budget, to Rp 37.48 trillion. This leaves Rp 1.78 trillion currently unaccounted for.
PLN also allegedly spent Rp 16.30 trillion on maintenance and Rp 62.59 billion shifting the operation of gas power plant Borang to the Apung plant.
Pertamina has been accused by the BPK of inflating the bill on certain fuel subsidies by Rp 1.17 trillion in 2006 and Rp 6.60 trillion in 2007, defying benchmark prices stated in the presidential and Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry regulations.
From 2004 to the first half of 2008, the state lost Rp 31.14 trillion and Rp $458 million from various sectors, the BPK audit showed.
The report has been widely adopted by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to clamp down on illegal activity. However, law enforcers have been unable to bring any oil and gas executives to court regardless of the BPK findings.
The report also highlighted poor management in royalty proceeds from mining commodities by the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry.
The agency accused the ministry of refusing to include royalties for nickel, gold, silver and copper in its 2007 account. The ministry only included royalty revenue from coal.
Anwar said the government should immediately improve its accounting system, starting with the establishment of a single account for pooling all state revenues.