The Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) was deemed not to be independent when it declared the audit results of the Hambalang project as confidential information. The Center for Regional Research and Information (PATTIRO) considers this closed-mindedness to have led to public opinion that the BPK is vulnerable to intervention.

“If the public opinion is correct, the BPK is actually hitting the gate of its own house,” said PATTIRO Executive Director Sad Dian Utomo through a press statement, yesterday. According to Dian, there are allegations that the BPK’s investigative audit report has undergone revisions and reductions so that its objectivity is questionable.

Especially when the names of 15 DPR members were omitted from the report. In fact, there is already a BPK code of ethics which strictly prohibits changing the audit findings with something that does not match the facts during the audit.

On the occasion of discussing the same case yesterday, Executive Editor of Tempo Magazine Arif Zulkifli hoped that the media would be able to oversee the enforcement of justice in any developments in alleged corruption in the National Sports School and Education Center project in Hambalang, Bogor, West Java. “The media can look for another side to the mystery of the Hambalang case which until now continues to raise questions here and there. Media work also identifies problems, including people as subjects,” said Arif.

The discussion initiated by PATTIRO revealed that the media’s contribution was very calculated in this case. “I encourage the media in the public interest to use loopholes that exist in all cases,” he explained. In the Hambalang case, said Arif, so that the coverage does not stop at the loss of one access to public information during the BPK audit, the mass media can see other ways to explore the mystery in the case. “For example, AU. Why did the name AU disappear? Then the disappearance of Arif Gundul in Yogyakarta in 2011. I think that is very serious. Do we report this to Kontras?” he said.

Still according to Arif, in the case of the BPK audit, the Public Information Disclosure Law should have been placed as a sister to the Press Law. (BE/SU/X-10) (quoted from Media Indonesia on Wednesday, 18 September 2013)