Car scandal rocks South Kalimantan

Yuliansyah The Jakarta Post Banjarmasin

A car scandal rocking both the East Kalimantan provincial administration and the legislative council has forced "dismissed" Governor Sjachriel Darham to publicly declare that he had not intended to lead legislators into a trap.

"I did not trap them (legislators) because they wanted to buy cars on credit through the Regional Development Bank. Then, we decided to take over the credit using the province's budget after legislators failed to repay their loans," he told The Jakarta Post when asked to comment on the car scandal here on Friday.

The governor declined to answer further questions about the scandal and its relation to the legislative council's decision to accept his 2001 and 2002 progress reports.

Sjachriel kept silent and avoided speaking to the press soon after the provincial legislature decided to dismiss him and his deputy Husin Kasah in a plenary session following mounting pressure from numerous sides in the province.

The legislature appointed provincial administration secretary Baderani to function as caretaker governor until the central government appointed a new governor and deputy governor.

Both provincial institutions have worked according to their own rules, causing the cancellation of a number of development projects that had yet to be approved by the legislature.

While reinstating Sjachriel as governor, home minister Hari Sabarno appointed an independent team to investigate the political row between the governor and the legislature.

The minister said the legislative council had no authority to dismiss the governor because the public administration was based on a presidential system and not parliamentary one.

Abdul Muis Gassing, chief of the South Kalimantan Prosecutor's Office, told the Post that his office was investigating the scandal.

"We are collecting evidence, including receipts for the disbursement of a certain amount of money from the provincial administration for the payment of the legislators' credit to the bank," he said.

He revealed that according to data at the bank, the provincial administration had paid Rp 3.5 billion in two installments in 2000 and 2001.

"The scandal must be investigated because the funds were taken from the province's budgets, which should have been used to finance development projects," he said, claiming that almost all members of the provincial legislature had taken out car loans.

Reliable sources at the provincial administration said the governor's decision to take over the legislators' car loans had something to do with the legislature's acceptance of his progress reports in 2000 and 2001.