Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) said it suspected potential losses from mismanagement of the Special Allocation Fund (DAK) throughout Indonesia between 2003-2009 could reach Rp 194 billion (US$20.53 million).
"One of the indicators is that the state of educational facilities, which are funded by the DAK, have shown no significant development despite the DAK budget being increased every year," the head of ICW's investigation division, Agus Sunaryanto, told a conference Tuesday.
Data from 2008 showed there were 467,000 classrooms in serious need of repair in elementary and junior high schools, 15,772 junior high schools without libraries and 17,709 junior high schools without laboratories.
"Such lack of development does not correlate with the amounts allegedly spent on improving the quality of school buildings and facilities," ICW chief of public service monitoring division, Ade Irawan, said. "Therefore we suspect corruption is the root of this problem," he said.
He claimed officials from the central government to the school level allegedly embezzled the special education fund. Ade said corrupt practices began with the National Education Ministry's planning process, which was not supported by valid data on the schools' needs.
"Officials from regional administrations often have to spend days lobbying decision-making officials at the ministry to get a bigger portion of the DAK for their regions," he said. Ade said the lobbying process opened the opportunity for third parties such as politicians, middlemen and businessmen to benefit.
He also questioned why it was the ministry that determined the programs and type of goods that would be funded by the DAK, instead of giving that authority to the schools to determine their own programs according to their needs.
There are other ways for the losses to add up, he said, adding that transfers of the special allocation funds to schools were prone to cuts by officials at the regional levels.
"According to the Supreme Audit Agency [BPK] report in 2007, regional administration officials had skimmed off some of the money before the funds were transferred to schools," Ade said.
Apart from these illegal methods, the DAK management at school level was also opaque and unaccountable, allowing school principals and administrators to easily manipulate reports on the special allocation funds.
ICW has urged the government to give schools the autonomy to use the funds according to their needs. "Planning the DAK allocation must also be a transparent process," Ade said.
He suggested regency or city administrations look at individual school conditions to facilitate prioritizing DAK recipients.
ICW also suggested stopping the distribution of funds to schools or regions proven to have embezzled the education fund. Previously ICW had reported alleged DAK embezzlement in Tasikmalaya, West Java, to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
However, an official at the KPK's public complaints division, Yuli Kristianto, said the case was still under evaluation.