Since the introduction of Village Funds, the trend of village-level corruption has increased.

According to Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), the trend of corruption in rural areas has increased since the implementation of the Village Fund program.

This was stated by ICW in their report, *Results of Monitoring the Trend of Corruption Case Enforcement in 2022*.

"Since the government allocated Village Funds in 2015, there has been a consistent increase in the trend of corruption cases until 2022," said ICW in its report.

According to ICW records, in 2016 there were only 17 corruption cases in the village sector. Then in 2022, the number jumped to 155 cases.

Not only the number of cases, but the potential value of state losses from village corruption also increased drastically.

In 2016, the potential losses were only around Rp40.1 billion, but in 2022 it swelled to Rp381 billion, as shown in the graph.

Of all the village corruption cases monitored by ICW, not all are related to the Village Fund program. There is also corruption related to village revenue or income.

Based on ICW records, there are at least five loopholes that make village budgets vulnerable to corruption, namely:

* The program planning process has the potential for bias towards the interests of elite groups;
* The program implementation process has the potential for nepotism and lack of transparency;
* The procurement process of goods and services has the potential for mark-ups, manipulation, and lack of transparency;
* The accountability process has the potential for fictitious reports;
* The monitoring and evaluation process has the potential to be merely a formality, administrative, and slow to detect corruption.

"The large allocation of village budgets is certainly a major challenge for corruption eradication, especially in terms of transparency and accountability," said ICW.

"If village heads or village officials do not have a good understanding of budget management, then this will cause the budget in each village to be vulnerable to corruption," it continued.