Akbar awaits verdict on Bulog scandal on July 22

Akbar awaits verdict on Bulog scandal on July 22

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Government prosecutors will present their sentencing demands
for House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung and two other
defendants in the Rp 40 billion Bulog scandal in court on July
22.

The Central Jakarta District Court is expected to hand down
its decision after hearing the closing defense submissions for
Akbar, Dadang Sukandar and Winfried Simatupang in early August,
the same time the People's Consultative Assembly will be holding
its Annual Session.

The court, presided over by Judge Amiruddin Zakaria, completed
the cross-examination of the three defendants as well as
confirming the cash was deposited and being held in an account in
Bank Mandiri, belonging to the Attorney General's Office.

Prosecutor Fachmi said after Monday's hearing that the
indictments were delivered convincingly.

"The charges of abusing power, amassing wealth from state
funds and causing losses to the state, faced by the defendants
have all been heard in court."

The case revolves around a government safety-net project
carried out on the orders of former president B.J. Habibie in
1999, using the State Logistics Agency (Bulog)'s non-budgetary
funds.

Akbar, who was a minister and cabinet secretary at the time,
assigned little-known Raudlatul Jannah Foundation, which Dadang
chairs, without any bids to organize the distribution of food for
the poor with Winfried as the contractor.

The court found there were no legal procedures or supervision
implemented to run the project, which later turned out to be a
hoax.

The three defendants have given different, confusing
statements, which have raised the judges' anger and amused people
attending the trial.

The most bizarre has been Winfried's statement that he kept
the Rp 40 billion, mostly in U.S. dollar bills, in filing
cabinets in his bedroom for the last three years before handing
it over in rupiah to investigators.

In another trial on Bulog's former chief Rahardi Ramelan,
Winfried said he returned the money to keep Akbar out of trouble.

Dadang and Winfried put the blame on the late Dadi Suryadi,
who they said was the only person who disbursed Bulog's checks
and kept the project's progress report.

Many people believe that the money was used to bankroll the
campaign of the former ruling Golkar party, which Akbar chairs,
in that year's general election, which had Habibie as its
presidential candidate.

Both prosecutors and judges have refused to go beyond the
facts dragged out of the defendants to find out where the money
has gone. Many suspect that the cash flowed into the coffers of a
certain political party, instead of the foundation.

During Rahardi's trial, the court explored how three Golkar
members, Fadel Muhammad, M.S. Hidayat and Iris, had their
signatures on Bulog's checks held by Raudlatul Jannah.

If the defendants are found guilty, they could face a maximum
of 20 years in jail and an additional fine of up to Rp 1 billion
for amassing wealth and graft.

However, judging from the political moves surrounding the
case, many people doubt that a fair sentence will be handed down
to the defendants.

Doubts started to loom when the House of Representatives
failed to set up a special committee to investigate the scandal
and to make a political decision whether Akbar was guilty or not.
The House needed only a few weeks to set up a special committee
to investigate the Rp 35 billion Bulog scandal that led to the
impeachment of former president Abdurrahman Wahid over his
alleged involvement in the scandal.