Billions of rupiah lost to irregularities in UN

JAKARTA. The Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) said on Thursday that the preparation of national examinations for elementary school, junior high school and senior high school students was rife with irregularities, causing the state to suffer billions of rupiah in potential losses.

In its audit report, the agency said the state suffered Rp 6.3 billion (US$560,700) in potential losses from the allegedly-rigged tender process for the printing and distribution of the 2013 national exam materials.

It also found that the state might have suffered Rp 8.1 billion in losses from the same process for the procurement of last year’s national exam materials.

“We’ve found that the tender process was not as open as it should have been. There is an indication that the organizer appointed certain companies to print and distribute the exam materials,” said BPK commissioner Rizal Djalil during a press conference.

BPK auditor Sjafrudin Mosii said there was indication that the tender was rigged as the multi-million project was awarded to companies that offered higher prices instead of those offering the lowest.

Rizal said the agency had also found irregularities in the budget management of this year’s and last year’s national exams, with a total loss of Rp 2.6 billion.

“We filed our findings with the Education and Culture Ministry last month and we’re expecting the minister and members of the House of Representatives Commission X [on education] to come here for a discussion,” he said, adding the agency had sent official invitations to the minister and House members.

However, both Education and Culture Minister Mohammad Nuh and representatives from the House’s commission failed to attend the press conference.

Nuh was under fire earlier this year for glitches surrounding the implementation of the 2013 national examinations, with many schools forced to delay the exams as the government failed to provide the exam materials on time.

The national exam for senior high school students was scheduled to take place on April 15.

However, 1.1 million high school students in the country’s central provinces failed to sit exams on schedule, after the printing company responsible for the provinces, Ghalia Indonesia Printing, failed to meet its deadline to deliver the exam material.

The ministry disbursed Rp 644.24 billion for the national exams, with a total of Rp 120.59 billion allocated for both junior and senior high schools, and Rp 85.57 billion for elementary school examinations.

The BPK said it would launch a special investigative audit into the fiasco. It said that despite the large amount of state budget allocated for the ministry to hold the national exams, the exams were marred by distribution problems.

The BPK also highlighted the lack of coordination between the Education National Standard Board (BSNP), the ministry and local governments in determining the budget for exams.

Sjafrudin said it caused duplication in state and local budgets, which caused additional losses. He added there was still Rp 51.2 billion of funds not spent by the national exam organizer to date.

“This is state losses, but it is not our capacity to determine whether this is corruption or not. We are ready to cooperate with law enforcers anytime soon if this case wants to be followed up,” Sjafrudin said.

Based on the findings, the BPK recommends the government focus only on the planning, evaluation and monitoring of national exams, while the execution of national exams should be given to provincial governments. (koi)