BPK auditors got 'Rp 11m monthly' from KPU
Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Lawyers for Mulyana Wira Kusumah, the first defendant in the high-profile graft case involving the General Elections Commission (KPU), revealed on Monday a series of other bribery cases against state auditors.
Defense lawyers told the trial of Mulyana that an audit team from the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) had received Rp 11 million (US$1,145) monthly from the KPU since January 2005.
KPU member Mulyana is being tried in the anticorruption court on charges of attempting to bribe BPK auditor Khairiansyah Salman with Rp 300 million in an apparent bid to influence the results of the BKP audit on election funds.
The same lawyers accused Khairiansyah, who leaked the information on Mulyana's alleged bribe attempt, of receiving Rp 750,000 weekly from the KPU.
"The money was aimed at helping the BPK team do their main task of conducting an investigative audit," Sirra Prayuna, a member of Mulyana's legal team, told the trial.
However, Sirra did not name the person who handed over this money or when the bribery practices stopped.
At Monday's court hearing, Mulyana's lawyers also denied bribery charges by prosecutors against their client, and demanded that the court dismiss them.
They said the charges, which carry a maximum penalty of five years in jail, were legally flawed as the crime involved two institutions -- the KPU and the BPK.
"So, in this case all those involved must be held as defendants, not only Mulyana. There should be no legal discrimination," Sirra argued.
In the previous hearing last Thursday, prosecutors charged Mulyana, who is also a prominent criminologist from the University of Indonesia, of trying to pay a Rp 300 million bribe to Khairiansyah.
Prosecutors said that the defendant had asked the auditor to nullify findings that showed discrepancies in the procurement of ballot boxes for last year's general elections, in order to ensure that the KPU was not found to be corrupt.
Mulyana was arrested on April 8 during a meeting with Khairiansyah, whom investigators from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) had wired with a recorder. The investigators seized Rp 300 million allegedly used as a bribe. In response, Mulyana claimed entrapment.
Apart from the bribery case, the KPK was also investigating other corruption cases at the elections agency.
KPU chairman Nazaruddin Syamsuddin has been detained for interrogation as a suspect in the graft scandal, along with KPU secretary general Susongko Suhardjo and treasurer Hamdani Amin.
The KPU members and officials have been accused of receiving large amounts of money collected as kickbacks from private companies that won tenders to provide election materials to the commission. A proportion of these kickbacks were also reportedly given to lawmakers and BPK auditors.
A former chairman of the budgetary committee at the House of Representatives, Abdullah Zaini, has admitted to receiving Rp 100 million as a gift at his daughter's wedding last year. The gift was returned to the KPU after the corruption case became public.
Also, another BPK auditor Japiten Nainggolan admitted to KPK investigators that he had received Rp 200 million in gratuities from the KPU, but he says he later returned the money.
The court was adjourned until Thursday to hear prosecutors' responses to the defense's legal objections.