Another graft scandal hits South Sulawesi council

Andi Hajramurni and Jongker Rumteh, Makassar/Manado

South Sulawesi provincial councillors are the latest legislature to be implicated in a corruption case, with members accused of embezzling Rp 18 billion (US$ 1.9 million) in public funds.

Corruption watchdog the Antigraft Community Coalition here made public the graft allegations on Thursday, delivering a report on the case to the North Sulawesi High Prosecutors' Office.

The coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGO) and scholars called for the prosecutors' office to immediately investigate the case. Among the NGOs involved in the coalition are the Anti Corruption Committee (ACC), the Legislative Monitoring Committee (Kopel) and Society Corruption Watch (SCW).

"The evidence is clear, as is mentioned in the report. The prosecutors should be proactive and we are giving them two weeks to begin probing the case," ACC coordinator Abraham Samad said.

Prosecutors' office head Prasetyo received the report from the coalition and promised to investigate the case soon.

After the delivery, Bastian Lubis, the director of Patria Artha Economic College, explained how the Rp 18 billion of provincial budget funds were allegedly embezzled by the councillors. He questioned the distribution of the RP 18 billion in state funds to the councillors, including Rp 6.8 billion worth of allowances, the purpose of which was unknown.

Disclosures about the questionable activities of provincial and regional councillors have become common during the past few months and many in West Sumatra and West Java have been charged with corruption offenses.

Separately in Manado, the North Sulawesi High Prosecutor's Office and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) confirmed they were investigating a graft case involving several officials with the provincial government and provincial councillors.

The case surrounds alleged irregularities in connection with the purchase of shares at the Manado Beach Hotel, a four-star resort located in Manado city, the capital of North Sulawesi province.

The prosecutor's office has questioned several officials, including North Sulawesi deputy governor Freddy Sualang and economic bureau chief Abdi Buchardi, at the provincial administration.

The office would also soon question North Sulawesi Governor A.J. Sondakh and several councillors, pending the approval by President Megawati Soekarnoputri, prosecutors' office spokesman Robert Ilat said.

Sualang said he and Abdi had already been questioned by prosecutors last year. Last week, they were questioned again by members of the KPK. "We were questioned for 10 hours last Friday," he said.

Spokesman Robert Ilat said his office had named one suspect in the case, namely J. Saruan, an assistant to the North Sulawesi governor.

The case dates back when J. Saruan was assigned last year by the provincial administration to buy shares in Manado Beach Hotel (MBH) totaling Rp 18 billion (US$ 1.9 million) from the Indonesian Banking Restructuring Agency (IBRA), the owner of the hotel. But, only Rp 6.7 billion was so far paid to the IBRA, while the remaining funds were allegedly distributed among the councillors and executives.