Finance Ministry issues regulations to control illegal state accounts

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Finance Ministry has issued two regulations to control unreported bank accounts of ministries and other government institutions, an official said.

"These regulations are part of the Finance Ministry`s efforts to control the use of funds in many accounts by state agencies," the ministry`s secretary general, Mulia P Nasution, said here Friday.

Hopefully, the regulations would also serve as a bridge for the issuance of a government regulation on managing central and regional governments` funds, he said.

"These regulations are also a follow-up to the BPK (State Audit Board)`s finding of unreported bank accounts since 2004. That`s why the Finance Ministry issued the regulations pending the issuance of a government regulation to that effect," he said.

The BPK had reported to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono that it had found 5,241 unreported accounts in a number of ministries. Of the number, 3,100 accounts were found in the 2005-2005 period and 2,141 in 2006.

The value of the money kept in the unofficial accounts totaled Rp9.08 trillion, of which Rp5.5 trillion had been spent on financing the 2006 state budget.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has set a six-month deadline for the ministries concerned to settle the problem of their illegal accounts.