BPK auditors got 'Rp 11m monthly' from KPU

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.