Travel Ban Placed on Web Site Graft Company Executive
by Arientha Primanita
The Immigration Department has banned an executive of a company at the center of a corruption scandal at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights from traveling overseas, an official said on Thursday.
The travel ban on Hartono Tanoesoedibjo, a commissioner of PT Sarana Rekatama Dinamika, was issued on Wednesday at the request of the Attorney General’s Office and will be in place for a year, said Agato Simamora, a spokesman for the Immigration Department.
Sarana is the company behind the Web site www.sisminbakum.com, which was set up to allow companies to register online with the government following an agreement with the ministry’s Directorate of Legal Administration.
The AGO alleges that the directorate channeled 90 percent of the revenue generated by the Web site to Sarana while the remaining 10 percent, intended for the state, went to officials at the ministry.
The Web site generated at least Rp 400 billion ($36.8 million) in fees since it first began operating in 2001.
Hartono and his brother, Bambang Rudijanto Tanoesoedibjo, both of whom are shareholders of Sarana, were questioned in November after the AGO summoned them three times.
Both Hartono and Bambang are commissioners of conglomerate PT Bhakti Investama, the holding company of Media Nusantara Citra, which runs a number of TV stations, including RCTI, SCTV and TPI.
The AGO has detained four suspects in connection with the Web site scandal.
They are Sarana’s president, Yohanes Waworuntu, and three former senior officials at the ministry - Zulkarnain Yunus, who is serving a 4-year sentence for another corruption case; Syamsudin Manan Sinaga, the former director general of public legal administration at the ministry; and Romli Atmasasmita, a law professor who helped draft the country’s anticorruption bill.
hot off the heals of the latest company articles "upgrading", which cost every single company in indonesia several million Rp each, now they will hit some companies again for having company registration certificates that have been signed by the 'wrong' person.
i've had a quick look through my archives of companies that i've formed over the past decade, and so far i've found none that have been signed by this fellow Yohannes Woworuntu.
The Attorney General's Office (AGO) said Friday all legal documents issued under an online administration system of the Justice and Human Rights Ministry were unlawful because they were signed by a private company.
Assistant attorney general for special crimes Marwan Effendy said his office would recommend the government issue new documents to replace the illegal ones.
He said the discovery was made after a series of investigations into a corruption case centered around the service website, www.sisminbakum.com, run by the ministry's directorate general of public law administration.
"We found out that legal documents issued via the system, such as permits for the establishment of companies and notarial certificates, were signed by PT SRD (Sarana Rekatama Dinamika) president director Yohannes Woworuntu," he said
SRD is the ministry's business partner responsible for the operation of the website and received 90 percent of the revenue from the system. SRD received around Rp 9 billion per month from the website service.
According to Marwan, as a legal authority, a notary is engaged with the government in doing its job thus a certificate legalized by a notary must be approved by the government.
"But in this case, certificates were all signed by a private entity while the law required them to be legalized by the government -- in this case the justice ministry," he added.
He said the AGO would study the legal ramifications behind the finding and make a set of recommendations to the government.
Marwan said this incident could pose a blow to the state, as thousands of legal entities were registered through the system.
The AGO said the system had attracted around 200 applicants every month since 2001, issuing a total of more than 25 thousand certificates up to 2008.
"Should this be true, we will recommend the government 'bleach out' the certificates, meaning it should issue new documents to replace the unlawful ones."
AGO spokesman Jasman Pandjaitan said his office detained Yohannes Woworuntu on Friday as a suspect in the corruption case to ensure a smooth investigation.
In response, Yohannes told reporters he was being used as a "scapegoat" in the case.
"I have been blamed for something I had nothing to do with. I joined SRD on Sept. 2, 2000 while the contract (between the company and the ministry) was signed on June 30, 2000," he said after his Friday questioning.
Yohannes denied knowing that the money generated from the system was distributed to several justice ministry officials.
The AGO had earlier arrested former directors general Romli Atmasasmita and Zulkarnain Yunus and incumbent director general Syamsuddin Manan Sinaga on similar charges.
These officials stand accused of distributing embezzled funds from the system both to SRD and several ministry officials.
The case also implicated former justice minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra. He has faced questioning twice to clarify his decision to sign two ministerial decrees in 2000 that directly appointed SRD to build the website and another about the activation of the system.
Marwan, however, declined to say whether Yusril would be named a fresh suspect. "Without any doubt, all who benefited from this (system) will be held responsible."
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