"I have made a complaint about the SPJ of ministers. Even though there are some who say `SPJ is not accounting and it is a state administration, SPJ is considered accounting too," Widodo noted at the State Palace, Jakarta, on Tuesday.
The president conveyed this at the inauguration of the XIII Congress of the Indonesian Accountants Association (IAI), which was attended by around 300 members and administrators of IAI.
The event was also attended by Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati; Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Ignasius Jonan; Minister of Research, Technology and Higher Education Mohamad Nasir; Minister of Law and Human Rights Yasonna H Laoly; Chairperson of the Moermahadi Audit Board, Soerjan Djanegara; and Chair of the Indonesian Accountants Association and Deputy Minister of Finance Mardiasmo.
"I will gave an example. If I go to a school even in the middle of the night, I would find the headmaster and the teacher busy preparing the SPJ report,` the president noted.
Widodo claimed that similar conditions were not only experienced by few schools but also by few other agencies in the area.
"When I come to the Public Works office, there I find people preparing the SPJ report in the middle of the night," Widodo stated.
In addition to teachers and employees in the regional government service, the president also admitted that a number of village heads (village heads) complained about the length of the SPJ report.
"I also met the village head in order to call for control of the use of village funds. About Rp147 trillion of the village fund has been used during the past four years," Widodo remarked.
Another example is the earthquake refugees in Lombok, who also experience difficulty with the SPJ report while waiting for the disbursement of aid.
"In the case of Lombok earthquakes, it has been 2.5 months since the quake occurred, but the budget for the reconstruction of the collapsed houses has not been received by the people, even though the money has been transferred. Apparently, there were 17 procedures. I was shocked to know that even though the money was already there, the people had to keep waiting, "he explained.
He also ordered that the 17 procedures be cut down, while maintaining accountability.
"There is no need for 17 procedures. It must be cut down to just a single procedure, Widodo revealed.
According to the president, there were also 123 derivative rules for the SPJ report.
"There are 43 reports that have to be prepared for the SPJ, which is only (the rule) of the fathers. If there are grandchildren, there must be 123 rules. Energy is used up for matters related to reports and SPJ," he explained.
According to Mardiasmo, there are at least 35 thousand accountants in Indonesia, and the country is the largest in Southeast Asia with 45 percent of the total graduates with accounting majors.
Reporting by Desca Lidya Natalia
Ediiting by Eliswan
Reporter: Antara
Editor: Eliswan Azly
Copyright © ANTARA 2018
