Jayapura, Jubi – A number of Papua Legislative Council members visited the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs in Jakarta on Tuesday, September 27, 2022. The lawmakers explained the use of Papua’s Special Autonomy Fund to the Ministry’s Assistant Deputy I, Brig. Gen. Danu Prionggo.
Lawmaker John NR Gobai said that during the meeting, his party clarified several reports regarding the amount of Papua’s Special Autonomy Fund disbursement, as well as Minister Mahfud MD’s statement regarding wide corruption in Papua.
Gobai told Jubi via WhatsApp on Tuesday, Special Regional Regulation (Perdasus) No. 25/2013 and Perdasus No. 4/2019 stipulated that 80 percent of the Special Autonomy Fund received by the Papua Provincial Government was directly distributed to regency and city administrations in Papua. The remaining 20 percent is managed by the Papua Provincial Government to finance five joint affairs related to Papua Special Autonomy.
Gobai also mentioned the Village Fund, which since 2015 has been sent directly to local governments. According to him, the Ministry of Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration can directly check the management of the Village Fund by the local governments.
Further, Gobai explained that the Additional Infrastructure Fund had been used for the construction of roads, bridges, and various other infrastructures. He said regional funds that have entered the Papua Provincial Budget would be transferred according to the specific account code to each regional office to carry out development and public services.
Gobai questioned the government’s statement that hundreds of billions of Papua Special Autonomy Funds were misused. “It is wrong to call the funds misused in hundreds of billions of rupiah,” said Gobai.
Gobai asked the central government through the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs to improve the control system on the use of the Special Autonomy Fund. “In the regions, there are Treasury Claims and Claims for Compensation, as well as the Inspectorate, Supreme Audit Agency, and Regional People’s Representative Council. We should not blame each other because the government is a system,” said Gobai.
Mahfud made this statement amid the polemic over the alleged gratuity of Rp 1 billion received by Papua Governor Lukas Enembe, which was currently being investigated by the Corruption Eradication Commission KPK.
“The funds issued by the government during the Papua Special Autonomy amounted to Rp 1,000 trillion, and to no avail. The Papuan people remained poor. We cannot accept this. The State has been spending money but the people are still poor. Since Lukas Enembe took office, more than Rp 500 trillion has been disbursed. And yet, the Papuans are still poor,” Mahfud said in Malang, East Java, on September 23, 2022.
After this statement, various media reported Special Autonomy Fund of Rp 1,000 trillion had been corrupted worth Rp 1,000 trillion.
However, data compiled by Jubi shows that the total value of the Papua Special Autonomy Fund received by the Papua Provincial Government from 2002 to 2022 amounted to Rp 104,636 trillion. Meanwhile, the total value of the Papua Provincial Budget from 2002 to 2022 reached Rp 173,210 trillion.
On September 25, 2022, Special Staff of the Minister of Finance for Strategic Communication Yustinus Prastowo said on his Twitter account that Rp 1,092 trillion of state funds had been disbursed for local governments in Papua and West Papua Provinces from 2002 to 2022.
Prastowo further said the Additional Infrastructure Fund for Papua and West Papua from 2002 to 2022 was Rp138,65 trillion. In addition, there is the Transfer to Regions and Village Funds (TKDD) to Papua and West Papua from 2002 to 2022 of Rp 702,30 trillion. There is also the Ministry and Agency Expenditure to Papua and West Papua from 2002 to 2022 of Rp 251,29 trillion, managed by the central government through relevant ministries and agencies. (*)