Aircraft company manager named suspect in graft

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

A project manager at state aircraft company PT Dirgantara Indonesia has been named a suspect in a Rp 330 million (US$33,000) corruption case.

Marwan Effendi, the head of Bandung prosecutor's office, told The Jakarta Post in the West Java provincial capital on Tuesday that a member of the marketing staff, identified by his initials I.A.W. and some of his colleagues had been declared suspects in the graft case after sufficient evidence had been gathered.

Marwan said that I.A.W., who headed a Rp 1.5 billion project, together with some of his colleagues produced a fictitious financial report that caused the state to suffer a total loss of Rp 330 million.

Marwan made the statement during a protest rally by some 2,000 workers of the aircraft company at the provincial legislative council building here. During the demonstration, the third in the past week, the workers protested over the failure of the company management to eradicate corruption, collusion and nepotistic practices in the firm and also demanded a pay rise.

Last week, the workers rallied at the House of Representatives in Jakarta to complain about the rampant corruption in the company and to seek a salary hike. They were unable to meet President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Marwan also said that they had encountered difficulties in their investigation of the case, "because it seemed that the company was trying to protect the suspects when we questioned them."

"The company management was also very slow to respond to our request for a team of assistants to accompany prosecutors in investigating the case. The management did eventually assign a team but it was already too late and the assistants provided were not competent for the job," he said.

He said that, at present, the team of prosecutors could only investigate employees at the project manager level, "but it is possible that the probe will reach the level of board of directors."

He also felt impeded by the prosecutors' lack of knowledge in aircraft manufacturing. "We were investigating professionals who are very skilled in their jobs."

Meanwhile, the company's public relations manager Rakhendi Triyatna rejected Marwan's aspersions. "From the beginning, we were very responsive to their demands. We allowed them to investigate 20 of our employees linked to the graft charges. We would not obstruct them in the investigation as this is regarding a crime," he told the Post by phone.

He warned the prosecutors not too name a person a suspect unless they had sufficient evidence.

Commenting on workers' protest rallies, Rakhendi labeled the workers' demands as unrealistic and counterproductive.

The board of directors, he said, had promised to raise their take home pay effective in December.

He also expressed concern that the workers' rallies would have a negative impact on orders for the company products.

The company has been besieged by a series of crippling strikes over the last three years as the government, at the behest of the International Monetary Fund, stopped further funding to companies that were perceived as either a government show piece or a white elephant.