Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Every year around 200,000 Indonesians from across the country leave for Mecca, Saudi Arabia, to complete their haj pilgrimage and fulfill their religious obligation as a Muslim.
Many have to work hard and live thriftily their entire lives to be able to save enough money for the journey because for most Indonesian Muslims, going on the pilgrimage is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
But despite their sacrifice, many pilgrims are often subjected to inadequate and dissatisfactory services once in Mecca because the Indonesian government still considers them a "commodity".
The government earns a large amount of revenue from the management of the annual haj funds but every year trillions of rupiah simply disappear and cannot be traced.
Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) says the large amount of funds going missing could be being embezzled by officials and politicians.
The Religious Affairs Ministry, the country's sole operator of the annual pilgrimage, charges each pilgrim around Rp 30 million for the journey, and each individual must transfer Rp 20 million to the ministry's accounts just to make the waiting list.
Prospective pilgrims are put on a two to three-year waiting list due to the large number of Indonesians wishing to go to Mecca, which always exceeds the quota allocated by the Saudi Arabia government.
With the pilgrimage priced at Rp 30 million per person in Indonesia, the ministry collects Rp 6 trillion from the 200,000 prospective pilgrims each year.
But with many opting for the pricier ONH Plus package which costs US$4,000 to $6,000 per person, the figures in the end are actually much higher.
ICW said if the Rp 6 trillion worth of haj funds were deposited in a bank at an average interest rate of 10 percent, up to Rp 600 billion in additional revenue would be generated each year.
"But there is no report on the use of that money. The huge amount of interest generated should be returned to the pilgrims, or returned to the state as non-tax revenue. But still every year, we never hear anything about this growing pool of money," said Ade Irawan of the anti-corruption watchdog.
Suspicions have also been raised as Indonesia charges its pilgrims a much higher fee than other countries, including its closest neighbor Malaysia, but provides far inferior services.
Indonesian pay Rp 4.2 million per pilgrim more than Malaysian pilgrims, but receive nowhere near the same standard of services, legislator Soeripto from the Muslim-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) said.
"So, it's clear that there have been markups in our haj management. If, for instance, the expense is the same as that in Malaysia, then each year there should be over Rp 800 billion worth of extra funds that are unaccountable," he said.
The alleged embezzlement has also been detected in the overcharging of flight costs for Indonesian pilgrims.
According to ICW, the ministry set the flight tariffs in June-July last year based on an oil price of US$130 per barrel, even though when the pilgrims left for Mecca in November and December it was only $40-$60 per barrel.
"Based on our calculations, the Religious Affairs Ministry should have returned around US$75 million, or more than Rp 878 billion, to haj pilgrims," said ICW activist Firdaus Ilyas.
Many anti-corruption activists have warned that the haj funds, put under the control of the Ummah Trust Fund (DAU) – an off-budget fund control by the ministry – could be embezzled by high-ranking officials, channeled to lawmakers or used by political parties as a source of funding for their campaign activities.
The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said it is investigating a report from ICW that Religious Affairs Minister Maftuh Basyuni "illegally" received allowances from the haj fund.