41 Tangerang legislators grilled over another mass corruption case

Multa Fidrus, Tangerang

The Tangerang Police will summon 41 councillors over their alleged involvement in the misuse of Rp 3.3 billion (US$354,838) of the regency's community development funds.

"We will question them this week," police detective chief Adj. Comr. Asep Adi Saputra said on Monday.

He said the police would investigate the case in response to media reports, although no official report had been filed.

So far, the police have questioned head of the Tangerang Social Welfare Agency Wildanul Firdaus and several other officials as witnesses.

"From their statements, we named one of the councillors, HR, who is in his forties, as a suspect in the case," Asep said.

Tangerang Council speaker Dadang Kartasasmita, however, said that no councillors had been summoned for questioning, either by the police or the prosecutor's office.

He was speaking on Monday after a hearing with Wildanul and other officials of the social welfare agency.

Dadang said that he had sought clarification over the channeling of the development funds with the chairmen of the 11 factions at the council.

"They claimed to have distributed the funds properly ... they vowed that not even 100 rupiah was embezzled or misused for personal interests. They will provide evidence, such as receipts, and present the fund recipients to corroborate them," he said.

The Tangerang Government Watch (TGW) and the Movement of Islamic Boarding School Students (Gerakan Santri) alleged that the councillors had asked the social welfare agency to channel the funds among the council factions for further distribution, sometime before the April 5 legislative election.

The non-governmental organizations alleged that each of the 11 factions had received Rp 300 million of the funds.

Chairman of the TGW Tonny Wismantoro said there was no legal basis for the councillors to distribute the funds directly as they are only authorized to review and approve the annual budget proposal of the local administration.

Tonny further claimed the watchdog has strong proof that the money had been disbursed by some of the factions to their councillors as uang kadeudeuh, or gratuities, to mark the end of their terms next August.