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The Finance Ministry says it has traced 3,195
government-related bank accounts containing some Rp 17.6 trillion
(US$1.9 billion) that have never been reported to the treasury.
"In a bid to improve transparency, the Finance Ministry has been trying
to sort out bank accounts opened by state institutions but which have
never been accounted for in the government annual budget accounts,"
said the ministry's director for accounting and financial reporting,
Hengkinus Manao.
The existence of the questionable accounts was one of the reasons the
Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) gave another disclaimer to the government's
annual budget report last year.
The agency, which revealed the existence of 1,300 unreported
government-related bank accounts containing Rp 8.5 trillion, has
slapped a disclaimer on the government budget report every year since
2000.
Last year's disclaimer was the second one for the Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono administration, which has vowed to improve the management of
the state finances and implement improved accounting standards.
Hengkinus said that the ministry was now drafting a ministerial
regulation to take action in respect of the accounts. "The action to be
taken will depend on the nature of the particular account," he said.
He said the ministry had classified the accounts into six categories:
treasury accounts, escrow accounts, accounts for collateral, accounts
for third party funds, accounts for donations and unclarified accounts.
"Not all of them are illegitimate as their usages is still basically
legal. They have just not been reported," Hengkinus explained.
The accounts could either be maintained, maintained temporarily, placed
under the supervision of special fund management units, closed, or
handed over to the auditors for further investigation, Hengkinus said.
He said the ministry was waiting for clarification from 10 ministries
and offices regarding the existence of questionable accounts in their
names.
"We have notified them about the accounts. They either have no
knowledge about them or simply have not the courage to clarify the
matter," he said.
The Finance Ministry had discovered 83 obscure accounts holding Rp 49
billion in the names of units of the Justice and Human Rights Ministry
and 23 obscure accounts in the names of units of the Religious Affairs
Ministry.
"We have asked for clarification from them, but they have not yet
responded," Hengkinus said, adding that the ministry was still sorting
out which of the accounts would be reported to auditors or the
anticorruption authorities for further investigation.
He said the Finance Ministry would incorporate the unreported accounts
in the 2006 government budget report, even though the relevant state
institutions had failed to mention them in their budget reports.
As of December 31, 2006, the ministry had found 21,778
government-related bank accounts holding Rp 34.1 trillion. "We
discovered that 96 percent of the unreported accounts were opened
before 2000," Hengkinus said.
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