REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla admitted that the 2018 state budget leak did occur. However, its percentage had just reached around 2.5 percent of the total budget allocation of Rp2,200 trillion.

"The percentage of the budget leak did not reach 25 percent. Instead, it was just around 2.5 percent. Of course, it remains dangerous. Please, do not (presume) that I said it is small. I said it is dangerous," he told journalists here on Tuesday.

The allocated funds of the state budget that might potentially be leaked or corrupted belonged to those of capital and goods expenditure. The total worth of the capital and goods expenditures was expected to reach around Rp500 to Rp600 trillion.

"The allocated budgets that may likely get leaked are merely those of the capital and goods expenditures," Kalla noted.

Instead, the allocated budget for personnel and operational expenditures, including those for paying civil servants' salaries, subsidies, debts, and social aids, could not be corrupted, he added.

On Feb 8, he had actually responded to this issue following the statement of Prabowo Subianto, contender of incumbent President Joko Widodo in the 2019 Presidential Elections, that the percentage of the state budget leaks could reach up to 25 percent. He expressed disagreement to Prabowo's opinion, saying that as revealed in various corruption cases that judges handled in courts, the average markup percentage of the development budget was between 7 and 15 percent.

Kalla noted that corruption crimes may occur in any country, including Indonesia, which has actively been carrying out infrastructure construction projects over the past years. The state budget generally and frequently targeted by the corrupts was related to the development budget. Thus, a statement that the state budget leaks could reach 25 percent was untrue, Kalla remarked.

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