Aircraft company manager named suspect in graft

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.