Misappropriation of the Special Autonomy Fund Hinders the Improvement of the Papuan People's Welfare

The National Police detected allegations of fraud in the management of Papua's special autonomy budget ( Otsus ) funds. This was revealed in a presentation delivered by the National Police Intelligence and Security Agency (Baintelkam) during the 2021 Polri Leadership Meeting (Rapim) on Wednesday (17/2). The Head of the Analysis Bureau Baintelkam Polri , Police Brigadier General Achmad Kartiko said that Rp. 93 trillion of funds had been disbursed for Papua and Rp. 33 trillion for West Papua. However, there is a problem with budget irregularities. He explained that in using the budget, the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) found that there was waste and ineffectiveness in the use of the budget. In addition, there are mark-ups or price increases in the procurement of a number of public facilities in the Papua region. One of the cases is a fictitious payment in the PLTA construction of around Rp. It was found that there was misappropriation of funds amounting to more than Rp1.8 tr...