Audit Agency Probes Causes of Persistent Papua Poverty

Audit Agency Probes Causes of Persistent Papua Poverty

Papua has received some Rp 40 trillion in funds since integration, but the region remains one of the poorest in Indonesia.

The Supreme Audit Agency has announced that it will soon conduct an audit on the special autonomy funds channelled to Indonesia's two easternmost provinces, Papua and West Papua.

The central government has disbursed more than Rp 40 trillion ($4.1 billion) since the two provinces were granted special autonomy status in 2001, but both provinces remain among the poorest and most underdeveloped regions in the country, fueling social unrest and calls for secession.

'We will conduct [the audit] this year,' said Hadi Purnomo, the chief of the audit agency known as the BPK, said during a hearing with the Regional Representatives Council on Tuesday.

According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), both provinces have high rates of unemployment with a combined total of 77,000 people of working age currently without work.

Is it acceptable for provinces rich in natural resources to have such poverty rates?

Puan Maharani, PDI-P

Poverty is also common, the latest BPS figures show, with 30 percent of people in resource-rich Papua and 27 percent in West Papua, which is also rich in natural gas and currently enjoying a tourism boom, living below the poverty line.

Western New Guinea came under interim Indonesian administration in accordance with a UN-ratified agreement 50 years ago today.

Full integration with Indonesia was completed in 1969 through the controversial 'Act of Free Choice' vote of Indonesian-picked Papuan elders.

Puan Maharani, a politician with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said that in those 50 years, the region was largely ignored by Jakarta, which nevertheless enjoys its vast wealth, including revenue from the nation's biggest taxpayer, the Freeport Indonesia copper and gold mine.

'Is it acceptable for provinces rich in natural resources to have such poverty rates?' Puan said on Tuesday.

She called for tighter monitoring of the special autonomy funds to ensure that they were used for the development of the provinces and the benefit of Papuans.

During a meeting with Papua Governor Lukas Enembe on Monday, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he was considering providing Papua with even greater autonomy, calling it a solution for the unique problems facing the province.

Yudhoyono said the so-called 'Special Autonomy Plus' would be implemented in Papua by August.

Priyo Budi Santoso, a deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, said the government must first discuss the plan with legislators, adding that an amendment to the Special Autonomy Law would be needed before the proposal could be formally implemented.

ENDS

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