41 Village Fund Corruption Cases In Central Kalimantan, KPK Asks To Be Handled Seriously

Illustration of village funds (ANTARA)

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) expressed concern about the corruption cases that occurred in villages in Central Kalimantan (Central Kalimantan) because they were in the high category and deserved mutual attention to be taken seriously. "The number of 41 village corruption cases in Central Kalimantan is high when compared to other provinces. This of course needs to be our common concern, we must improve prevention efforts," said the Head of the Anti-Corruption Village Observation Team of the Directorate of Development The participation of the Indonesian KPK community, Friesmount Wongso in Sampit, Friday. This was conveyed by Friesmount Wongso when explaining the observations of two anti-corruption villages in East Kotawaringin, and the event was attended by the Regent of East Kotawaringin Halikinnor and a number of other officials. Wongso said that based on data from the Directorate of Corruption, the National Police Criminal Investigation Agency, that corruption data in villages in 2015-2022 was based on the region, the village corruption was mostly in East Java and West Java Provinces. with a total of 76 cases each. Meanwhile, there were 41 cases of corruption in the village in Central Kalimantan, and this number made Central Kalimantan ranked eighth in most corruption cases that occurred in the village. He explained that the perpetrators of corruption that occurred in villages were dominated by village heads, followed by village secretaries, village treasurers and others, with modes, including price coupling, fictitious activities, fictitious reports, embezzlement and misuse of the budget. Corruption in villages the more common it is when the government begins to increase the budget in each village, either through village funds or village fund allocations. The village budget, which was previously only hundreds of millions, is now an average of Rp. 1 billion, some even reaching Rp. 5 billion. "Our concern is whether the apparatus knows to manage it or not? He is surprised because usually only hundreds of millions, now it is billions. Cases only decreased slightly during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-2022," said Wongso. According to the man who previously reportedly serving in the field of KPK investigation, the high number of corruption cases in the village, thus made the KPK enter the village, with the aim of preventing and handling the high corruption. "This is in accordance with the 2014 government's Nawacita program, namely Building from Pinggiran Desa. In addition, the large number of budgets managed by villages, including village funds, village income, central/regional allocation, financial assistance for the community," he said. According to him, the KPK has gone down to the village because public services in villages have not yet maximum, both in terms of population administration and procurement of goods and services. In addition, there are also limited human resources and budgets of supervisory institutions, namely the district/city Inspectorate, BPKP and BPK to oversee 81,616 villages, and 8,490 sub-districts as well as 160 UPT/SPT in Indonesia. Another consideration is the low public participation in supervising the APBDes, low transparency and accountability in village financial management as well as a village poverty level of 12.29 percent (BPS RI, March 2022), the national poverty target for 2022 is 8.5-9 percent.

"We remind you never to trade positions. Remember, now everything is easily monitored. If you are involved in corruption, the digital footprint will also continue to exist until the children and grandchildren," said Wongso. The KPK hopes that prevention efforts can continue to be optimized so that corruption cases, including in villages, continue to decrease, and he believes that efforts to prevent corruption will produce optimal results with the seriousness and support of all parties.