Analysis of Transparency and Accountability of Village Funds’Financial Management: a case study in Banyumas

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the transparency and accountability of village funds’financial management. This research was conducted by exploring the implementation of Law No. 6/2014 from the perspective of village officials in Banyumas Regency. This research approach is qualitative with a case study method. Data collection was carried out using participatory observation approaches, in-depth interviews, documentation of evidence, and focus group discussions. The research was conducted on village officials in 20 villages from 4 districts in Banyumas. The results showed that transparent and accountable village financial reporting by the village head and village officials by Law No.6 of 2014 concerning villages, was still low. About budget accountability, there are still many villages that have not drafted village regulations related to village financial management policies. The results of interviews with village secretaries showed that only six villages admitted that they had not compiled it, but based on the results of the documentation analysis carried out there were ten villages that had not compiled it. Thus, as many as fifty percent of the total study villages had not yet compiled village regulations related to village financial management. This shows that the village financial rules, in the village income and expenditure budget, have not yet made village regulations as a basis for carrying out an activity when getting funds. Other findings are that reports of village property, village regulations on village financial management, treasury accountability reports, tax books, village bank books, are not available. This indicates that the budget use recording system and procedures are not integrated with the financial records that should be owned and used in the village government. The obstacle faced is the lack of availability of human resources who understand the governance and accounting information system of village funds