Remarks of President of the Republic of Indonesia at the 2021 National Coordination Meeting of the Government Internal Comptroller, 27 May 2021, Bogor Presidential Palace, West Java Province

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim,

Assalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh,

Good morning,

May prosperity be upon us all,

Om Swastiastu,

Namo Buddhaya,

Greetings of Virtue.

Distinguished Deputy Chairperson of the Supreme Audit Agency of the Republic of Indonesia (BPK RI) and all personnel of the BPK RI,

Distinguished Cabinet Ministers, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, and Minister of State Secretary who are present here, and Minister of Finance attending this meeting via video conference,

Distinguished Chairperson and all personnel of the BPKP (The Development Finance Comptroller),

Distinguished Chairperson and all personnel of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK),

Distinguished Attorney General and Heads of the Prosecutor’s Office attending this meeting via video conference,

Distinguished personnel of the Indonesian National Defense Forces (TNI) and the Indonesian National Police (Polri), Governors, Regents and Mayors;

Ladies and gentlemen.

First and foremost, I would like to underscore that the main role of the oversight measures is ensuring achievement of our goals, ensuring achievement of the Government goals, ensuring achievement of our programs, and ensuring achievement of the State Budget in an accountable, effective and efficient manner.

Observing procedures is important; yet, what’s more important is ensuring that (the Government) can achieve the targets that have been set.

Once again, those targets must be achieved in an accountable, effective and efficient manner.

The people have been waiting for the result. We often overlook this matter.

Once again, the people have been waiting for the result.

They have been waiting for the positive impact from every penny the Government spends.

And, the oversight measures must ensure that there is no single penny being poorly-targeted, misused, let alone corrupted.

I have reiterated that I have zero tolerance for budget fraud, especially during this challenging situation amid the pandemic when we have been making every effort to speed up recovery in health and economic sector. Every penny counts.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The year 2021 is a momentum to boost national economic recovery. We have seen that in the first quarter our economy contracted by minus 0.74. We are aiming to achieve a 7-percent growth in the second quarter. It is no easy task. Hence, as previously stated by Chairperson of the BPKP, the programs must be well managed.

Once again, the year of 2021 is the year a momentum to boost national economic recovery. The Government has set aside a budget of Rp700 trillion that must be disbursed immediately to propel economic growth and restore the national economy. The process must be carried out immediately and it must be well-targeted to boost our economy.

Let me also stress that accountability, effectiveness and efficiency of budget spending are crucial.

On this occasion, I also want to emphasize several factors that the BPKP and all personnel of the Government Internal Comptroller must pay attention to.

First, acceleration of the Government spending must be monitored and be improved. We must be aware that disbursement rate of the Government spending is still low at 15 percent of State Budget and 7 percent of the Regional Budget. Budget absorption for the National Economic Recovery is also still low at 24.6 percent.

Let me reiterate that the speed must be coupled with accuracy.

The speed in procuring goods and services also remains slow. We must address this issue. In the first quarter, realization of goods and services procurement from the government ministries / agencies was only 10.98 percent. Procurement of goods and services for regional governments was less than five percent. The BPKP and the Government Internal Comptroller must provide assistance to solve the problem.

Hence, I order the BPKP and all Government Internal Comptroller to find out the cause of the slow realization of the expenditure, to find out the problem and provide a solution.

The BPKP and the Government Internal Comptroller must provide a solution to solve the problem. That is part of the task in monitoring the expenditure.

Government ministries / agencies and regional governments must be given support to immediately spend the budget in an accountable manner. Our target in the second quarter is no easy task, namely to boost the economy from minus 0.74 to 7 percent; yet, I believe that, God willing, if everyone put their best effort, the budget will be disbursed immediately and the realization of the target is not impossible to achieve.

Since the target of our economic growth is 4.5-5.5 year-on-year (yoy), if the 7 percent target is not achieved, the target of 2021 economic growth may also not be achieved. Even though we are aware of global economic uncertainty due to the pandemic, we still must do our best.

Second, the quality of planning must be continuously improved. I am aware that there are several programs with no clear measure. The goal of the budget is not clear and it does not support the achievement of our target and is unsynchronized with other programs or other measures so that the gap between the central and regional development still exists.

I often make on the ground inspection, and I have found a dam without primary, secondary, and tertiary irrigation. Such problems exist. I have found that during my inspection. There is also a new port without any road access. We can’t let it happen. The port would be useless. I have found similar problems in other places and the problems must be solved. The problems have hampered the leverage of our programs and will prevent the public from enjoying the benefits of the programs.

I have ordered the BPKP and the Government Internal Comptroller of the Government Ministries / Agencies and regional governments to monitor the process from the upstream, from the very beginning at the time of planning. We are used to reusing the planning from that in the previous years so that it does not fit, and is not adaptive, to today’s situation.

Once again, in the last three years, especially with during the pandemic, the disruption of the wave of change has been very real and the situation has been changing very quickly so everyone has to adapt to the wave of change.

Third, data accuracy still becomes our problem today. The problem affects every aspect. The inaccurate and overlapping data on social assistance has slowed down the distribution and made it poorly-targeted.

The same thing has happened to data on the distribution of other government assistances. Data from the Central Government and regional governments are often not integrated. We need to address this issue. The BPKP must help oversee improvement in the quality of government-managed data. The BPKP must monitor the integration and synchronization database of the programs to improve data reliability.

We also must make the most of the BPKP’s forensic data and analytical data laboratories.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The effectiveness of internal control calls for commitment and good management. Therefore, all recommendations must be followed up. Making recommendation is not enough. Instead, we must also find out the root of the problem so that the same problem will not be repeated in the following year. We must not make the same mistake every year.

I order Cabinet Ministers, Heads of Agencies, and Heads of regional governments to seriously follow up on the recommendations based on the results of the supervision made by the BPKP and the Government Internal Comptroller. We must not let the problem worse and eventually become a legal problem.

I also order Government Ministers, heads of the Government Agencies, and heads of regional governments to ensure that the Government Internal Comptroller work independently and professionally. Do provide them with access and accurate information and do not cover up any information. Do not let the slow work process hamper the verification made by the Government Internal Comptroller and hamper the Government programs.

Last but not least, allow me to remind the BPKP and all personnel of the Government Internal Comptroller that the Government Internal Comptroller aims to help achieve development goals, not to frighten other stakeholders. All personnel of the Government Internal Comptroller must understand it and must act before a mistake occurs.

Amid this challenging situation, we need to work fast, strengthen synergy, collaboration, and checks and balances, cooperate with each other, correct each other, and improve each other so that Government’s programs can run effectively and benefit the people.

In the end, we hope our nation can immediately rise from the pandemic.

That concludes my remarks on this auspicious occasion.

And by saying bismillahirrahmanirrahim, I declare the 2021 National Coordination Meeting of the Government Internal Comptroller open.

I thank you.

Wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. (RI/EP)