Established in 1947, the Audit Board of the Republic of Indonesia (BPK) has the mandate to audit the management and accountability of state finance and report it to the parliament. The legal foundations of its establishment and audit roles are the 1945 Constitution and a package of three laws on State Finance respectively. The latter were legislated between 2003 and 2006. With these foundations, BPK is the only state financial audit institution in Indonesia with its freedom and independence to perform its tasks. This condition is almost ideal to the prerequisites stipulated in the 1977 Lima Declaration and the 2007 Mexico Declaration on Independence.
BPK is governed by a Board that consists of a Chairman, a Vice Chairman and 7 Board Members. The scope of BPK's audits covers all central/provincial/local governments, state-owned enterprises, the central bank (the Bank of Indonesia), public service organizations, and other parties who manage public funds. BPK currently has more than 6,400 employees, hundreds of whom are equipped with international audit certifications, such as Chartered Accountant (CA), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), and Certified Information System Auditor (CISA).
As a supreme audit institution, BPK has been challenged to promote public transparency and accountability for years in order to uphold good governance as the core foundation of democracy. To respond to this challenge, institutional strengthening as well as organizational and individual development must always be encouraged. BPK already has in place a strengthening and development strategy, and has participated in a series of capacity building activities funded by internal and external sources. In order to bring BPK's public sector auditing competence equal to international standards and best practices, BPK keeps learning from its foreign counterparts.
To enhance its auditing skill and competence, BPK opens up to the global arena by being a member of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI), the Asian Organization of Supreme Audit Institution (ASOSAI), and the ASEAN Supreme Audit Institution (ASEANSAI). Furthermore, BPK maintains close relationship and mutual cooperation with other SAIs and donor agencies.
Joining INTOSAI in 1968, BPK is currently a member of 8 working groups. Additionally, BPK has successfully become a member of the INTOSAI Common Forum of Professional Standards, chair of the INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing (WGEA) since 2013, and a member of the UN Panel for External Auditors. BPK is a pioneer in environmental auditing, audit of disaster-related aid, and in using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in field audit. Furthermore, BPK is recently appointed as the external auditor of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for Fiscal Year 2016-2017 and the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA) for audit term 2014-2017.
Since becoming a member of ASOSAI in 1979, BPK has twice served as Chairman (1988-1991 and 1997-2000) and 6 times as a member of the Governing Board, including the current term 2015-2018. BPK also has great roles in ASEANSAI from its inception in 2011: initiator; Chairman and Secretariat for 2011-2013; Secretariat Function for 2013-2015, and actively involved in ISSAI and IntoSAINT implementation projects in ASEANSAI.
In terms of bilateral cooperation, BPK currently holds Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with 19 SAIs, with Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) of Australia and Jabatan Audit Negara (JAN) of Malaysia as the two most intense. BPK has active cooperation with 6 donor agencies, namely the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), US Agency for International Development (USAID), Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). Specifically supporting ASEANSAI activities, the German GIZ is provided with an office space in BPK's headquarter in Jakarta.
Through establishing international cooperation, BPK hopes to not only gain new knowledge and experience to enhance institutional, organizational and individual competence, but also give contribution to other SAIs through its roles as project leader, subject matter expert, facilitator, instructor, or host of international events.