Forensic Investigation of Fraud in Village Government Agencies: An Ethnographic Study in Indonesian

Abstract

The utilization of the Village Fund budget has resulted in many improvements in facilities and infrastructure for rural areas. Still, we cannot deny there is a misuse of the funding in some village governments. In this study, we aimed to understand how fraud occurs in village government institutions because there is a patron-client relationship in a bureaucratic environment. This research is an ethnographic study using data collection methods in the form of field observations, documenting files that have relevance for research, and in-depth interviews with informants by applying the snowball technique to obtain informants. The field findings show that the social relations between the political sponsor (patron) and the head of the village government (the client) make the internal control system that regulates financial procedures not run properly. In the end, it opens opportunities for the patrons to misuse the village budget. Fraud behavior is not limited to causing economic losses but also has implications for damaging the social joints of village community life. This research offers a village government monitoring model expected to help district governments develop a monitoring system.