Car scandal rocks South Kalimantan<\/p>\n
Yuliansyah
\nThe Jakarta Post
\nBanjarmasin<\/p>\n
A car scandal rocking both the East Kalimantan provincial
\nadministration and the legislative council has forced "dismissed"
\nGovernor Sjachriel Darham to publicly declare that he had not
\nintended to lead legislators into a trap.<\/p>\n
"I did not trap them (legislators) because they wanted to buy
\ncars on credit through the Regional Development Bank. Then, we
\ndecided to take over the credit using the province's budget after
\nlegislators failed to repay their loans," he told The Jakarta
\nPost when asked to comment on the car scandal here on Friday.<\/p>\n
The governor declined to answer further questions about the
\nscandal and its relation to the legislative council's decision to
\naccept his 2001 and 2002 progress reports.<\/p>\n
Sjachriel kept silent and avoided speaking to the press soon
\nafter the provincial legislature decided to dismiss him and his
\ndeputy Husin Kasah in a plenary session following mounting
\npressure from numerous sides in the province.<\/p>\n
The legislature appointed provincial administration secretary
\nBaderani to function as caretaker governor until the central
\ngovernment appointed a new governor and deputy governor.<\/p>\n
Both provincial institutions have worked according to their
\nown rules, causing the cancellation of a number of development
\nprojects that had yet to be approved by the legislature.<\/p>\n
While reinstating Sjachriel as governor, home minister Hari
\nSabarno appointed an independent team to investigate the
\npolitical row between the governor and the legislature.<\/p>\n
The minister said the legislative council had no authority to
\ndismiss the governor because the public administration was based
\non a presidential system and not parliamentary one.<\/p>\n
Abdul Muis Gassing, chief of the South Kalimantan Prosecutor's
\nOffice, told the Post that his office was investigating the
\nscandal.<\/p>\n
"We are collecting evidence, including receipts for the
\ndisbursement of a certain amount of money from the provincial
\nadministration for the payment of the legislators' credit to the
\nbank," he said.<\/p>\n
He revealed that according to data at the bank, the provincial
\nadministration had paid Rp 3.5 billion in two installments in
\n2000 and 2001.<\/p>\n
"The scandal must be investigated because the funds were taken
\nfrom the province's budgets, which should have been used to
\nfinance development projects," he said, claiming that almost all
\nmembers of the provincial legislature had taken out car loans.<\/p>\n
Reliable sources at the provincial administration said the
\ngovernor's decision to take over the legislators' car loans had
\nsomething to do with the legislature's acceptance of his progress
\nreports in 2000 and 2001.<\/p>",
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