Alleged corruption at HI revealed

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Some two hundred former employees of Hotel Indonesia filed a report against the hotel's former board of directors on Tuesday, alleging that they had corrupted workers' pension and insurance funds.

Hotel Indonesia Workers Association (SPHI) chairman Windu Wahyudi said at the Attorney General's Office that they had solid evidence to prove that the board of directors had misused a total of Rp 3.8 billion (US$422,000) in pension funds the state had allocated for the workers.

"We have evidence and witnesses to prove that they embezzled our pension, insurance, and allowance funds. We are ready to testify against them in court," Windu said after submitting their complaint to the Attorney General's Office.

The former board of directors of Hotel Indonesia before it was sold to a company under the giant cigarette maker Djarum Group were A.M. Suseto, Imam Subiantono and Maman Suparman. They were not available for comment on Tuesday.

Windu alleged that on April 27, the management asked the hotel's pension funds foundation to transfer around Rp 3.2 billion to an account at one of Bank Mandiri's branch offices in Central Jakarta, which the foundation did on April 29.

"The management never distributed the money to us; we can testify that none of us have received any money. Instead, they cut our severance money to pay our pensions," Windu said.

The association's lawyer Hermawanto said that they accused the management of corruption because the funds belonged to the state as Hotel Indonesia was a state-owned company.

"We are reporting them for corruption, because they took state money," he said.

Windu also alleged that the management had subsequently taken Rp 640 million of their pension funds using the same tactic.

"We haven't counted the money misused in the insurance funds yet because it involves all of the 1,215 workers. We must calculate it first but I am sure it will be billions of rupiah," Windu said.

The government sold Hotel Indonesia to PT Cipta Karya Bumi Indah, a subsidiary of the Djarum Group, in May last year and all employees were laid off.

After a long dispute, most employees agreed on a settlement package. Only 46 employees have not accepted the package to date.

Attorney General's Office spokesman RJ Soehandojo said his office would quickly process the report as it concerned people from the low-income bracket.

"After this, I will report the case directly to the attorney general. From the report, I can made a tentative conclusion that there are indications of corruption here," he said.