House discovers new documents on 'sale' of disaster funds<\/p>\n
Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
More documents detailing the practice of selling disaster aid
\nbudgets have been discovered by the House of Representatives
\ndisciplinary body after it questioned more legislators on
\nWednesday.<\/p>\n
Body chairman Slamet Effendi Yusuf said several documents of
\nagreement between local officials and House members conspiring to
\nembezzle state budget funds had been discovered, including
\ndetails of the fee percentages and the names of middlemen
\narranging the meetings.<\/p>\n
\"One document was about an agreement during the previous House
\nperiod, and the other one is from the current period. It's too
\nbad that the later is still a draft without any signatures or
\nstamps,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The new finds come after two documents were leaked earlier
\nthis month detailing lists of legislators, middle men and elected
\nregional officials, who the documents said had conspired to
\nembezzle disaster relief aid worth Rp 1.09 trillion (US$109.25
\nmillion). Legislators demanded a special fee to either add to the
\namount given or speed up the disbursement.<\/p>\n
The legislators are mostly members of the House budgetary
\ncommittee.<\/p>\n
Slamet said the documents also contained names of people from
\noutside the House who allegedly acted as brokers or middlemen by
\nlinking local officials with House members, along with their
\ncontact numbers, promising they could help \"customize\" the budget
\nas requested.<\/p>\n
\"We've been getting a lot of new information, but we will need
\nto re-check before concluding anything,\" he told said after a
\ntwo-and-a-half-hour questioning session.<\/p>\n
In the previous first documents, several names of non-House
\nmembers also appear, including Andi Mustakim, an assistant of
\nMudahir, a member of budgetary committee from the Indonesian
\nDemocratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).<\/p>\n
The disciplinary body questioned two more legislators on
\nWednesday. They were Mohammad Aly Yahya from Golkar Party and
\nAmin Said Husni from the National Awakening Party (PKB).<\/p>\n
Mohammad and Amin said they had been questioned about the
\nmechanism of budget deliberations used by the budgetary
\ncommittee, including the establishment of an unprecedented
\n\"verification team\" that consisted of some 50 out of 83 budgetary
\ncommittee members.<\/p>\n
A total of seven people have been questioned, including the
\nbudgetary committee secretary head Setyanto Nugroho, who admitted
\nto receiving dozens of budget proposals from Mustakim with the
\nendorsement of committee chairman Emir Moeis, of the PDI-P.<\/p>",
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