Credibility of Education Sector Budgeting

Building an education budget accountability system has become one way to save the mission of "intelligent life of the nation". A credible accountability system will prevent fraudulent practices of the education budget. Notes from the "One Decade Study Report on Educational Corruption" released by ICW stated that 296 cases of educational corruption were found with a state loss of IDR 619.0 billion.

The pattern that often erodes the accountability of the Education Budget is the construction of buildings and infrastructure, especially those financed by Special Allocation Funds (DAK), operational funds in the form of salaries & scholarships, teaching support funds in the form of books & teaching aids, and funds collected from the community. Understanding patterns of budget leakage can be a valuable input in restructuring education budget accountability.

If we look at the actor relations, deviant behavior in Education Budget Accountability is carried out by high-level civil servants, members of parliament and procurement contractors. This actor commits fraud in the form of increasing costs, planning procurement items, and internal control. The continuation of this fraudulent activity is due to the poor integrity system which is able to prevent deviations from the accountability of the education budget.

The education budget is allocated at a large value when compared with other sectors. In such a large budget, the space for public participation is unequal. The budget is prepared in a closed process without participation among the groups involved in the budgeting. System checks and compliance often do not occur. So the implications are that planning, implementation and governance are not effective.

Education budget accountability can be done by building a good system for planning, budgeting and education spending. One way is through public access to budget management, either through complaint channels or openness to various budgeting documents. Public participation in planning and budgeting will guarantee the credibility of the education budget.