Anita Rachman – Three months after Indonesia Corruption Watch challenged them to comply with the Political Parties Law and release their 2010 financial reports, six major parties have yet to do so.
After weeks of promises, the Golkar Party is now saying it does not have any obligation to respond to ICW's request.
"Why should we? We can just announce it [the financial report] directly to our constituents or to the media. Why to ICW?" Golkar's executive board chairman, Priyo Budi Santoso, said on Wednesday.
His statement appears to contradict one made by his Golkar colleague, Bambang Soesatyo, earlier this month, when he said his party agreed with ICW's financial transparency demands. "Our party is open to that idea. That's why our financial report was audited by an accountant," Bambang was quoted as saying.
Asked when Golkar would release the report, he said, "Please be patient, we are preparing a complete report. We need more time to calculate everything."
ICW's Ade Irawan questioned why Golkar, along with other major parties, had yet to release their 2010 financial reports.
The Democratic Party and the National Mandate Party (PAN) had said they were unsure whether the audits of their accounts had been completed. PAN added that it would "wait for the right time" to release its report.
"Their financial reports should have been audited by now and published on their Web sites," Ade said. The process, he added, should have been finished by the end of March, within three months of the end of the fiscal year.
"The BPK [Supreme Audit Agency] says none of the political parties have reported their finances," he added. That the BPK has not actively asked political parties for their financial reports has contributed to the delay, he said.
The 2011 Political Parties Law mandates that parties, especially those that receive money from national or regional budgets, have their financial reports – budget, balance sheets and cash flow statements – audited annually by the BPK. They are then required to file a report with the government. Failure to do so could disqualify parties from further government support.
Only the National Awakening Party (PKB), the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the United Development Party (PPP) have responded to the ICW's request, but Ade said they only released general figures, not detailed audits.
The PKB, he said, issued a 32-page report, while the PKS report was only a page long, and the PPP report two pages. Ade said it was important for the parties to be transparent about their finances because they received taxpayer money. According to the law, those funds should be used for "public political education" and the parties' operations.
Golkar's Priyo said he couldn't remember how much the party received from the state, but that it "wasn't much, especially compared to the frenzy over it."
Tjahjo Kumolo, from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said his party received about Rp 14 billion ($1.6 million) from the state each year. Tjaho said the party used this money for its constituents. "We are open and transparent," he said, while nevertheless declining to say when the party would release its report.
Emphasizing that Golkar had no obligation to respond to ICW, Priyo said if the public wanted to know about Golkar's finances, they could just ask the party.
But Ade said ICW's request was not for the anticorruption organization's own sake. "It's for the people, the public," he said. "It's strange that they keep on refusing to publish their financial reports," he added.