REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Minister of State Enterprises Dahlan Iskan has stated that corruption in the form of fictitious official trips is quite common in state-owned enterprises. 

"Although such fraudulent practices do not seem to have cost the state much, at only 166 million IDR, they are pretty much going on in state-owned enterprises. However, after we began tracking it officially, there had never been any out-of-town trips," he said after a Board Meeting of the State Enterprises Ministry at Perumnas building on Tuesday.

On October 2, the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) announced its findings from an audit of 81 accounts at 62 institutions, carried out during the first half of 2012. The agency found 702 cases of infringement.

"Among the findings, there were 63 cases of fictitious trips recorded at several state-owned enterprises, resulting in losses of up to 2.5 trillion IDR," Dahlan stated.

In the wake of BPK's findings, the minister instructed the legal bureau of the ministry to conduct further investigation into the records of state-owned enterprises. "The findings of BPK with regard to infringement in state-owned enterprises were classified into three categories: loss to the state, potential loss to the state, and the state revenue shortfall," Dahlan said. 

"These fictitious business trips made by officials of state-owned enterprises has clearly hurt the country. Therefore, we have asked the legal bureau to find further evidence relating to these trips," he continued. 

"These trips usually involve state employees who work with travel agencies. So, in such cases, the concerned people get reimbursed for tickets without actually travelling," Dahlan explained.

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