Cool! Sri Mulyani Has A Unique Way To Keep An Eye On State Money: The 2022 APBD Surgeon Competition

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani (Photo: Instagram @smindrawati)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu) through the Directorate General of Fiscal Balance (DJPK) is said to be holding a 2022 APBD Data Review Competition as an effort to encourage transparency in state financial management.

Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani said it was important to manage integrated data and information, both in the management of the State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN) and the Regional Revenue Budget (APBD).

Well, this is what we are continuing to do at the Ministry of Finance. Building a culture or institution that data drives, evidence-based, and then equipped with an ability to analyze the data and information is important," he said in a written statement quoted on Friday, September 16.

According to the Minister of Finance, along with the advancement of technology, the community and all stakeholders together with the government can participate in understanding and supervising the flow of funds in both the APBN and APBD.

Currently, the ranks of the Ministry of Finance will continue to improve their ability to manage not only the state financial system, but also read and analyze data. The goal is to be able to continue to improve state financial management as state treasurer, and also to continue to increase accountability to the public," he said.

The Minister of Finance added that his party is trying to continue to increase accountability in managing financial transfers and village funds.

"This is an effort from the Ministry of Finance to be able to increase the knowledge of the wider community regarding a third of the state budget transferred to the regions and managed by local governments, as well as to be able to disseminate public accountability," he said.

Furthermore, the Minister of Finance explained that the data review competition being held can be a solution to introduce to the public how to translate and analyze financial data and get to know government policy choices.

"So actually by system it is something simple but in reality many people do not understand," he said.

Meanwhile, at this data surgery competition, a total of 6 finalists have been selected for the competition out of a total of 162 registered participants. The Minister of Finance itself hopes that the ideas and innovations of various participants can be an input for improvement in budget management performance.

The innovations and ideas that emerged from the participants and the various proposals submitted, I hope it doesn't go wasted or it won't become a waste. I hope of course from this process we can take advantage of various proposals to see the various things that might be used," said Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani.

For information, in the 2022 State Budget Law, the amount of budget disbursed by the central government to the regional government this year reached IDR 769.6 trillion in the form of Transfers to Regions and Village Funds (TKDD). This figure represents 28.35 percent of the total state expenditures of IDR 2,714.2 trillion.

Meanwhile, in the discussion of the 2023 State Budget Bill with the current government together with the DPR, a draft TKDD allocation of Rp814.7 trillion was determined from the total state expenditure of Rp3,061.2 trillion.