STATE PROJECTS, PRIVATE PROFITS: WHO CONTROLS THE PEOPLE'S MONEY?
STATE PROJECTS, PRIVATE PROFITS: Who Controls the People's Money? Core thesis: Every rupiah of the state budget is a trust. But in 2026, a series of cases revealed a troubling pattern: projects worth billions of rupiah with near-zero physical progress, yet payments already made in full. In Pekalongan, the KPK found instructions to award contracts to the regent's family company. In Boven Digoel, a Rp121 billion road was only 2.91 percent complete but had been paid in full. In Whoosh, a project promised "no state budget" ended up as a public burden. This article dissects how public money flows from the state treasury to private pockets, who controls the decisions, and why oversight systems fail to prevent it. Not an accusation against individuals, but an analysis of the structure that allows this pattern to repeat. This is the story of people's money that should have been spent on the people—but ended up elsewhere. --- HOOK On 4 March 2026, the KPK exposed a case ...