JAKARTA: President Prabowo Subianto seeks to root out illicit practices in the haj administration through a forensic audit of the Haj Financial Management Agency (BPKH) as part of his administration’s move to improve governance for pilgrimage management.
After a limited meeting at the Presidential Palace on Monday, Haj and Umrah Minister Mochamad Irfan Yusuf told reporters the President had ordered his ministry to “clean up” haj management and rid the system of what the minister described as “cartel” and “mafia” practices.
The ministry regularly uses the terms to refer to illicit practices in the haj administration, including manipulation, abuse of authority and other illegal schemes that exploit pilgrims of the annual Islamic rite.
“[The President] greatly appreciates our efforts to clean up the haj and umrah [minor haj] ecosystem of cartels, violations and fraud that ultimately harm prospective pilgrims,” Irfan said on Monday.
Among the measures imposed to improve governance, he added, is a forensic audit of BPKH, a body tasked with managing haj funds independently of the ministry that oversees general haj operations.
BPKH was formed in 2017, while the ministry was only established last year to take over haj management from the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
On Sept 21, BPKH reported the agency was managing around Rp184 trillion (US$10.4 billion) of haj funds.
Seventy per cent of the fund was invested in government-issued Islamic securities, the other 5 per cent was put in funds at the Islamic Development Bank and the remaining was held as deposits at 30 Islamic banks in the country.
The audit would establish a transparent picture of the country’s haj finances, allowing the government to make better policies and ensure the funds were free from “financial engineering”, said Deputy Haj and Umrah Minister Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak.
He cited a recent investigative report on Malaysia’s Pilgrims Management and Fund Board (Tabung Haji).
The report revealed that in 2017, the board misreported 3 billion Malaysian ringgit (Rp13 trillion) in profit despite recording an actual loss of 1.4 billion ringgit.
The report triggered a wave of arrests throughout September, including of a former religious affairs minister and former Tabung Haji chair.
The haj management in Indonesia has also been marred by a corruption scandal.
Former religious affairs minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas is currently standing trial at the Jakarta Corruption Court over allegations of improperly distributing haj quotas and benefiting private travel agencies in 2023 and 2024.
Travel agency executives and Yaqut’s staffer were also named suspects in the case that allegedly resulted in Rp622 billion in state losses.
The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) suspected ministry officials of charging travel agencies in exchange for additional quotas to shorten waiting times, resulting in the agencies charging the so-called “acceleration fees” to pilgrims.
Other measures to improve haj governance included cleaning up invalid pilgrims’ registration data, which Dahnil claimed helped the government reduce the waiting time for the state-subsidised regular haj programme from 49 years to 14 years.
The ministry is also re-verifying 3,600 agencies for the special haj programme, handled by private travel agencies that offer shorter waiting times at higher costs, to remove those deemed unqualified or inactive to curb fraud practices.
While acknowledging that fraud and manipulation in haj management must be entirely curbed, haj and umrah policy expert Ade Marfuddin of Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) in Jakarta stressed that all institutions involved in pilgrimage management should be subject to audits, including the haj ministry.
“BPKH is entrusted by the public with their money, and the ministry uses the fund to buy hotel rooms, plane tickets or catering for pilgrims,” Ade said on Tuesday.
“Should the process just end there? There should also be an audit on how the ministry is using the money.”
He added that comprehensive measures are necessary to bring change to Indonesia’s haj management, including improving the capacity of haj officers and imposing stricter sanctions on haj travel agencies that violate regulations. - Jakarta Post/ANN
