Former Golkar lawmaker to lead BPK

JAKARTA. Harry Azhar Azis, a senior Golkar Party politician and former member of House of Representatives Commission XI overseeing financial affairs, has been selected as the chairman of the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) for the 2014-2019 period.

In a vote among nine members of the BPK board, Harry secured five votes, one vote more than the current BPK chairman, former National Mandate Party (PAN) lawmaker Rizal Djalil. Sapto Amal Damandari was appointed deputy chairman, according to BPK member Achsanul Qosasi.

During his inauguration as a member of the BPK last week, Harry promised to improve the BPK’s auditing performance, by adding measurements or indicators to be used in assessing the management of state finances by the government. He said one of the indicators would be the people’s welfare.

“This is needed to avoid a case where a ministry or government body gets an unqualified opinion [WTP in its financial report], but the people remain poor,” Harry added, as quoted by kontan.co.id. “I have asked BPK experts, they said there was no such [indicator], so it needs to be discussed whether it’s possible or not, if it requires a special regulation or not.”

The Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) has raised concerns that standards at the BPK could decline under Harry’s leadership. Fitra investigation coordinator Uchok Sky Khadafi said Harry’s background as a Golkar politician could undermine BPK independence when auditing. “There’s nothing to be expected from a politician [...] We doubt that the BPK will improve under [Harry’s leadership],” Uchok told kontan.co.id on Tuesday.