Secretary General M. Guntur Hamzah receivingthe 2017State Assets (BMN) Award from Finance Minister Sri Mulyani, Thursday (2/11) at the Ministry of Finance’s Dhanapala building, Jakarta. Photo by Humas MK/Ganie.

The Constitutional Court received second place of the 2017State Assets Utilization (BMN) Award for ministries/state agencies along with 10 other working units. The award was presented by Finance Minister Sri Mulyani to Secretary General M. Guntur Hamzah at the Ministry of Finance’s Dhanapala building, Jakarta on Thursday (2/11/2017).

In her address, Sri Mulyani said that many people do not know that many government operations uses tax revenue and non-tax state revenue (PNBP) to produce assets or state assets (BMN) used by the Government in their daily operations. Sri Mulyani called the award a form of accountability. "This is a form of accountability in using the State Budget (APBN)," she said.

Sri Mulyani has also asked state assets users to continue to inventory unused state assets. According to her, unused state assets burden the state with losses because of the costs continually incurred to manage it, without any profits. "If a BMN is idle, it becomes a cost center. If a BMN is idle, it does not generate income. And if a BMN is idle, we leave crucial assets not to benefit the community," said the former IMF Director.

Sri Mulyani also said that many do not know that state assets currently are the underlying assets for the issuance of sovereign debt papers (SBN) and sharia-based securities. If those assets are good, their values are good, and they are maintained well, they can be used as securities. According to Sri Mulyani, this BMN Award is a form of appreciation for the management of state assets, which is part of the work of the Ministry of Finance\\'s Directorate General of State Assets, while simultaneously monitoring state assets management so that they can continue to be improved.

The 2017 BMN Awards was the fifth since 2012. As many as 87 ministries/state agencies were assessed. (Ilham WM/LA/YW)