Habibie's testimony damaging for Akbar<\/p>\n
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Former president B.J. Habibie's written testimony in the Rp 40
\nbillion Bulog scandal read during a hearing on Monday has
\nsolidified the case against his former minister\/cabinet secretary
\nAkbar Tandjung.<\/p>\n
Habibie said in the testimony read out by prosecutor Fachmi on
\nMonday that he ordered Akbar to ensure that the distribution of
\nfood to the poor in early 1999 should be in compliance with
\nexisting regulations.<\/p>\n
Habibie, who is now in Germany tending his sick wife, made the
\ntestimony before Attorney General's Office investigators on Feb.
\n25 this year.<\/p>\n
He said that the regulations he meant included Presidential
\nDecree No. 16\/1994 on the management of the state budget where a
\nformal report is required and should be accounted for at the end
\nof the president's tenure.<\/p>\n
\"The reason I appointed Akbar to run the program using the Rp
\n40 billion belonging to the State's Logistics Agency (Bulog) was
\nbecause it was one of the cabinet secretary's functions to secure
\nmy directive.<\/p>\n
\"(But) I never received or was told how the program was
\nimplemented. I learned that there was a follow up to my order
\njust recently from the media when the case blew up,\" Habibie
\ntestified.<\/p>\n
Habibie delivered his order during a Feb. 10, 1999 meeting
\nwith then coordinating minister for social welfare and poverty
\neradication Haryono Suyono, minister of industry and trade\/Bulog
\nchief Rahardi Ramelan and Akbar.<\/p>\n
Bulog money was used, he said, because foreign loans had not
\nyet arrived while the state budget was in short supply. \"But the
\ngovernment has to react fast to recover the government's
\ndeclining image in the people's eyes.\"<\/p>\n
Akbar, now the chairman of the Golkar party and the speaker of
\nthe House of Representatives, in his response to the court denied
\nthat Habibie had specifically mentioned the 1994 decree and that
\nhe ever made a report on the program.<\/p>\n
\"I resigned from my post on May 10, 1999, when the program was
\nnot yet completed. There was no formal hand over to my successor
\nMuladi so there was no chance to make the report ... I also made
\nan oral report to the president on one occasion,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Akbar and two people he asked to run the project -- chairman
\nof the Raudlatul Jannah Foundation Dadang Sukandar and contractor
\nWinfried Simatupang -- are defendants in the case. Rahardi is
\nalso being tried separately.<\/p>\n
Akbar is being charged with abusing his power by swindling the
\nmoney with the help of his two accomplices. Many believe that the
\nmoney had actually gone to Golkar's coffers to finance its
\ncampaign for the general election that year.<\/p>\n
The court also heard written testimonies from the
\nadministrations of villages in four provinces in Java who the
\nFoundation claimed to have sent the food packages to in mid 1999.<\/p>\n
Only a few of them admitted to receiving the packages from the
\nFoundation. Head of Payaman village in East Java, Mahdi Rahardjo,
\nstated in his testimony to investigators that the packages came
\nin small amounts.<\/p>\n
Winfried, in his response to the testimony, said that he had
\nused some Rp 2 billion of the Foundation's money to buy and
\ndistribute food packages to villagers in East and Central Java
\nand kept the remaining Rp 40 billion at home.<\/p>\n
The Bulog money is now in the hands of the investigators.<\/p>\n
Presiding Judge Amiruddin Zakaria adjourned the hearing until
\nMay 27 to question five witnesses from Bulog and the Foundation
\nwho earlier gave contradictory testimonies.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/habibies-testimony-damaging-for-akbar-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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