Graft alarms jangling for Sports Ministry Rp 1.9 trillion IT project

Anti-graft watchdogs are raising red flags in the Finance Ministry’s disbursement on Monday of Rp 1.9 trillion (US$194.06 million) for a Sports and Youth Ministry information technology (IT) project, which they suspect may be corrupt.

Uchok Sky Khadafi from the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (FITRA) said he was concerned that the IT project was riddled with corruption.

“If this Rp 1.9 trillion is allocated for a corrupt project, no wonder the quality of our athletes is sinking. Just look at the performance of our athletes! We are the worst Asian country,” Uchok said.

Ade Irawan from Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) said Minister Roy Suryo should focus on improving Indonesia’s sports instead of an IT project.

“As a new minister, Roy Suryo should come up with brilliant ideas to improve the quality of Indonesian sports in his program,” Ade said.

Youth and Sports Minister Roy Suryo, well known as an expert on information technology, plans to use the money on something he calls “e-coordination”, a video conference system which will connect civil service departments across 33 provinces with the Ministry.

Roy, formerly controversial lawmaker from the Democratic Party, replaced Andi Mallarangeng who stepped down from his post in disgrace following the Hambalang graft scandal, another multibillion fraud in the Ministry.

Andi was named suspect by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) last year for an alleged misappropriation in the Rp 1.17 trillion project.

“We have 33 civil service departments across Indonesia. We can accelerate coordination among the departments by taking advantage of information technology,” Roy said in a press statement.

“We had a teleconference between our headquarters and regional branches in our latest national working meeting and simulated e-coordination between the Ministry and administrations units,” Roy added, as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Ade questioned the urgency of the e-coordination program.

“Is it the most urgent program for Indonesian youth? The fact that the Ministry prioritizes this program is quite weird. If the video conference system is need to accelerate communication, does that mean there is a problem with the current communication system? What is the Ministry trying to achieve with this program?” Ade said.

“We have to take into account that the government is no longer centralized. Now we have regional autonomy in which every region is controlled by its own leaders. So why use video conference for coordination purposes? The minister should explain this to the public. I cannot judge the adequacy of the budget before I have heard his explanation on the urgency of his main project,” Ade added.

Uchok called e-coordination “a waste of money”.

“Every ministry has developed their own network system: the Religious Affairs Ministry, the Culture and Education Ministry, the Information and Communication Ministry, and now the Sports and Youth Ministry.

“These ministries are not serious in executing the projects. They are only exploiting the budget, which is huge, and do not implement the projects according to what they have written in their proposals. The internet connection will be so slow to the point that the infrastructure becomes useless,” Uchok added.

Skype is a popular video conferencing facility marketed by Microsoft and available for instant download online. The Premium service costs Rp 45,000 per user, per month. (ogi)