Car scandal rocks South Kalimantan

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.