30 officials being looked at for roles in vehicle scam

30 officials being looked at for roles in vehicle scam

JAKARTA (JP): Thirty officials of the city supplies office are
currently under scrutiny for their alleged involvement in marking
up the number of city-owned vehicles in the city budget thus
causing the administration a loss of Rp 16 billion, an official
said on Wednesday.

Deputy Governor for Administrative Affairs Abdul Kahfi said
that the administration had yet to determine the punishment for
the officials and added that they were still studying the extent
of the officials' malfeasance.

He said that the city inspectorate office had found that the
allegedly errant officials had registered more than 2,000
vehicles which no longer belonged to the administration in the
1998/1999 city budget.

The officials had also registered vehicles without documents
that proved they belonged to the administration.

"Through that practice they reaped illegal profits for
themselves," he said.

Kahfi said that the 30 officials were still on duty under
tight supervision until the administration determined the form of
punishment on the basis of existing regulations.

The city had lost about Rp 16 billion in funds allocated for
the maintenance of official vehicles.

The total allocation for all of the city's official vehicles
was Rp 37.41 billion. According to data from the supplies office,
the real number of official vehicles covered by the routine
expenditure was only 3,873, far below the figure of 6,797 that
was reported for the budget calculation.

City administration secretary Fauzi Bowo said earlier that the
total losses from the mark-up practices reached only Rp 7
billion.

Contacted separately on Tuesday, head of the city supplies
office Dadang Ruskandar confirmed that 30 out of his 150
subordinates were under investigation.

He said that they include the office's two section heads and
three sub-section heads with the rest being staff members.

"I support the investigation for the sake of creating a clean
government," he said.

Dadang also revealed a finding that some of his staff had
embezzled about Rp 400 million in funds set aside for procurement
of vehicle batteries and tires.

"The city budget had allocated Rp 2 billion for materials
provision but the assigned officials spent only 80 percent of
it," he said.

However, Dadang refused to reveal more details on the errant
officials.

He said he had reported the case to Governor Sutiyoso and it
had been handled by the inspectorate office. (ind)