Bob used deviant procedures in mapping contract: Witness<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): A witness in the multimillion dollar graft trial
\nof timber tycoon Mohamad \"Bob\" Hasan told a court hearing on
\nThursday that proper procedures had been neglected regarding
\npayments made by forest concessionaires to the defendant's firm
\nover an aerial mapping project.<\/p>\n
A member of a verification team on project funding at the
\nAssociation of Indonesian Forest Concessionaires (APHI), Robert
\nSianturi, said the APHI team audit reports found that a number of
\ndeviant procedures had been committed during the project.<\/p>\n
\"Audit reports show that US$49 million was paid to the
\ndefendant's firm, PT Mapindo Parama (MP), via Apkindo (the
\nAssociation of Indonesian Wood Panel Producers),\" Robert told the
\nhearing at the Central Jakarta District Court, which was presided
\nover by Judge Subardi.<\/p>\n
The defendant, who chaired APHI from 1989 to 1998, was also
\nchief of Apkindo at that time.<\/p>\n
Robert said that this was an incorrect procedure, since an
\nApril 1989 contract between APHI and PT Adikarto Printindo (AP)
\n-- which became PT MP after Hasan bought the firm -- clearly
\nstated that payments must be made to PT AP via APHI exclusively.<\/p>\n
Via the 1989 contract, APHI had granted the project to PT AP,
\nwhich was eventually bought off by the defendant. The defendant
\nthen changed the firm's name to PT MP in 1991.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors have accused Hasan of causing the state US$75.62
\nmillion in losses and $168 million in losses to APHI via a
\nfraudulent mapping project which was not preceded by an open
\ntender.<\/p>\n
Just as Apkindo and APHI were then headed by the defendant, so
\nwas the Indonesian Sawmillers and Wood Product Manufacturers
\nAssociation (ISA).<\/p>\n
\"PT Mapindo, Apkindo, ISA and APHI, all of them headed by the
\ndefendant... it's like the money went from one pocket of the
\ndefendant to another,\" Robert said.<\/p>\n
As reported earlier, the mapping and photographing project was
\ncarried out after forest concessionaires paid $2 per cubic meter
\nfor logs bound for export.<\/p>\n
Robert added that the audit reports carried the evidence of
\nthese payments made by Apkindo to PT MP, as receipts for those
\npayments were signed by Asmaning Tjipto Wignjoprajitno in his
\ncapacity as Apkindo executive chief.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors have also accused Asmaning, who incidentally was
\nalso executive chief of APHI, for working in collaboration with
\nthe defendant in the fraudulent project, and that he would be
\ntried separately.<\/p>\n
\"One pays after one sees the quality of work, normally. Here,
\nall forest concessionaires had to pay beforehand,\" Robert said.<\/p>\n
Clearly implying that PT MP had marked up the contract for the
\nmapping project, prosecutors earlier said that APHI and Apkindo
\nhad paid MP $2.49 per photographed hectare, whereas in
\ncomparison, state forestry firm, Perum Perhutani, a forest
\nconcessionaire and an APHI member, used another firm's services
\nand paid only $1.80 per photographed hectare.<\/p>\n
Robert added that the second fault he saw in the 1989 mapping
\ncontract was that it had never been renewed to carry the new name
\nof the firm and therefore still carries the name of PT AP.<\/p>\n
A third fault, he said, was that the contract stated that PT
\nAP was obligated to pay $300,000 as a guarantee to APHI should
\nanything go wrong with the mapping project.<\/p>\n
\"This amount has never been paid,\" Robert said.<\/p>\n
He cited PT MP's fourth mistake as having failed to pay up to
\ndate the \"10 percent tax\" to the Directorate General of Tax from
\nthe payments PT MP received from the mapping project.<\/p>\n
\"Tax officials have issued claims to PT MP several times and
\nare so fed up they have turned to APHI to pay up for PT MP,\"
\nRobert said.<\/p>\n
Robert also said that in an interview he carried out with two
\nstaff members from APHI, he had come to the conclusion that the
\nstaff members had been threatened into not drawing up the correct
\n\"progress report\" on the project.<\/p>\n
\"The APHI staff members, Edi and Hendro, had repeatedly asked
\nthe defendant to form a monitoring body which could file a report
\non the progress of this project. The defendant rejected this,\"
\nRobert said.<\/p>\n
\"They clearly told me that they felt if they acted against the
\ndefendant's wishes, both would lose their jobs.\"<\/p>\n
In the same hearing, chief prosecutor Arnold Angkouw asked
\nanother witness, Budiono Kartohadiprodjo, a commissioner at PT
\nMP, to explain the hundreds of transfers of funds from PT MP into
\nseveral firms chaired by the defendant, immediately after PT MP
\nhad received funds from the state and APHI for the project.<\/p>\n
\"They were just loans... they have not been paid back,\"
\nBudiono said.<\/p>\n
When asked to name the firms, Budiono said he could not
\nremember their names since there were several.<\/p>\n
Arnold then named at least 20 firms under the defendant's
\ngroup of companies, including PT Nusamba, PT Sarana Graha and PT
\nBaruna Inti Lestari. (ylt)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/bob-used-deviant-procedures-in-mapping-contract-witness-1447893297",
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