Marchio Irfan Gorbiano, Jakarta – Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati criticized on Wednesday the rampant revisions of budget execution lists (DIPA) by working units of ministries, regional administrations and other government institutions across the country.
The minister said the rampant DIPA revisions indicated poor planning of state revenue spending by nearly all government working units, adding that her ministry would punish working units that frequently revised their DIPAs.
"If working units cannot plan their own budgets then why should I disburse their budgets?" Sri Mulyani said in response to a report made by Finance Ministry director general of the treasury Marwanto that showed there had been 52,400 revisions made to DIPAs by about 26,000 working units across the country.
She further said that, "Working units that frequently revise their DIPAs should not receive budget allocations. Is that fair? [...] It indicates they do not respect the state revenue collected from the people."
Sri made the comments in front of bureaucrats who attended the National Coordination Meeting for the Implementation of the 2018 State Budget at the Finance Ministry office.
She said that to try to improve the budget planning of all government working units, the ministry would impose punishments. "Sometimes, shaming is more effective. Award granting no longer works here," she added.
However, she expressed hope that civil servants would be able to improve their budget planning so they could efficiently and effectively use the state revenue to further the prosperity of the Indonesian people. (bbn)