No trade off in BPK best auditing result: Ministry

JAKARTA. The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry has reassured that its latest clean audit result has nothing to do with the alleged graft case implicating Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) auditors.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has named two BPK auditors, Rachmadi Saptogiri and Ali Sadli, suspects in a bribery case, in which they are accused of accepting bribes to grant an “unqualified (WTP)” opinion – the best audit level – for the Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Ministry’s 2016 budget report.

Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry’s inspector general, Mochtar Husein, said the bribery case had led people to question the credibility of other government institutions that had also been granted the WTP opinion, including his ministry.

“It is as if that the WTP opinion can be traded easily. Therefore, I want to underline that our ministry has not been involved in such a thing,” Mochtar told reporters in Jakarta on Monday.

“We have never made any ‘approaches’. Instead, we have improved our administrative system and organizational structure. We have organized it carefully within the past two years so that we can reap the results now.”

In the 2014-2015 period, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry got a “reasonable with exception” (WDP) grade from the BPK. (Viriya P. Singgih)