Arya Dipa, Bandung – A number of non-governmental organizations in Bandung, West Java, have urged the Bandung administration to stop using hibah (grants) for the upcoming Bandung mayoralty election, which will be held in 2013.
Suryawijaya, the coordinator of the Public Information Development Center, expressed his concern that the grant assistance would be benefited by particular parties ahead of the mayoralty election. "We wish all parties would not take advantage of the social funds for political interests," Suryawijaya said on Monday.
A joint investigation conducted among societal elements, such as the Budget Discussion Forum, the Bandung Education Coalition, the Initiative Group, the West Java Environmental Forum and the Bandung Legal Aid Institution, saw an indication of unclear amounts of budget allocations, irrational amounts of budget allocations and beneficiaries as well as multiple aid beneficiaries.
"We also found nine institutions, which continuously received grants, whereas in fact they were regarded as in default in 2010 and 2011 for not submitting accountability reports on time," said the Initiative Group executive director Donny Setiawan.
Suryawijaya also focussed on irregularities in spending grants allocated by the Bandung administration. Bandung mayoral decree No. 110/2012 mentioned grant spending of Rp 435 billion (US$46 million), which was different from the record stated in the Bandung mayor decree No. 978/2012 of Rp 389 billion, Suryawijaya said.
"The ambiguity is strengthened by a statement from Bandung municipal secretary Edi Siswadi recently published by the media. According to him, the amount of grant funds in 2012 was more than Rp 493 billion," he said.
Suryawijaya added that in the allocation of funds there was a considerable range of the amount of funds to each recipient. The institutions that received the largest amount of grant funds was the Indonesian Teachers Association at Rp 56 billion to pay the salary of temporary teachers.
"On the other hand, other institutions receive only Rp 4.3 million. The gap shows the lack of clear rules in the maximum and minimum amount of grant funds given," he said. Suryawijaya added his center found 23 institutions deemed incompetent in managing funds, but received funds of around Rp 1 billion.
The various findings, added Suryawijaya, were a strong reason for the Bandung municipality to verify all the grant recipients. "There should be a moratorium or postponement in fund disbursement during the repeat verification," he said.
Separately, Bandung municipal secretary Edi Siswadi said that of around 4,000 proposals worth Rp 493 billion, his office had only disbursed funds for 125 grant fund beneficiaries. "The amount disbursed is only 2.5 percent of the total amount," he said, adding that his office had conducted verification before disbursing the funds.