Prevent Politics Ahead Of The Pilkades, All Village Heads Expired From Term In Rejang Lebong Will Be Audited By APBDes

Office of the Inspectorate of Rejang Lebong Regency, Bengkulu Province. ANTARA/Nur Muhammad

BENGKULU - The Inspectorate of the Rejang Regency Inspectorate Lebong Zulkarnain Harahap said his party would conduct an audit of the village income and expenditure budget (APBDes) in 61 villages whose term of office of the village head ends on August 2, 2022.

Zulkarnain said that the APBDes budget was sourced from village funds (DD) and village fund allocations (ADD). Disbursed in three stages to 122 villages spread across 14 sub-districts in Rejang Lebong.

"When his [village head] term expires on August 2, 2022, we will carry out a budget [audit] specifically in September 2022," he said in Rejang Lebong, Bengkulu Province, Sunday, July 31.

The APBDes audit is carried out after the village head's position is finished in order to avoid practical political games ahead of the simultaneous Village Head Election (Pilkades), both conducted by political opponents and other parties, by utilizing the data from the APBDes examination.

The implementation of the APBDes audit, he said, was as an accountability for village heads for the use of DD and ADD so as not to misuse state finances.

He explained that the APBDes audit in the 2021 fiscal year had been carried out by his party. In the first stage last June, to 45 villages, the second stage to 61 villages in July, and the third stage in August 2022 as many as 61 villages.

So far, according to him, of the 45 villages that have been audited, the management of the APBDes by each village has started well with a report on the use of the budget and the funds are no longer held by the village head but are entered into the village treasury account.

With the improvement in the management of the APBDes by 122 villages, he hopes that development in the village can run well and that no village apparatus will stumble upon legal problems in its management.

Previously, in 2021 it was recorded that 122 villages received village funds from the central government of Rp. 113 billion. The highest received by Lubuk Mumpo Village, Padang City District, amounted to Rp. 1.56 billion and the lowest DD recipient was Kayu Manis Village, Sindang Kelingi District with the amount of Rp. 663.81 million.