City gives 45 workers the ax for corruption and bribery

JAKARTA (JP): Forty-five employees of the city administration have been fired since June for involvement in corruption and bribery, Deputy Governor of Administrative Affairs Abdul Kahfi said on Tuesday.

"Twenty-three of those fired were high-ranking civil servants, while the other 22 were of the lower ranks," said Kahfi, who is also the chairman of the city administration reform team.

Eighty officials, including the 45 dismissed employees, were given heavy sanctions after the team found they were involved in wrongdoings, he said.

The remaining 35 were either demoted or given pay cuts, Kahfi said.

"Sixty-two other officials received light sanctions in the form of warnings, while four were verbally reprimanded by their superiors," he said.

When asked about a recent investigation into the embezzlement of about Rp 16 billion from a fund intended for the maintenance of official vehicles at city administration, Kahfi said that 30 officials had been declared suspects.

"All the 30 officials of the city supplies office are being thoroughly investigated by the inspectorate. Remember, they are still suspects," Kahfi said. "None of them are guilty until proven so."

More than Rp 16 billion is missing from the 1998/1999 city budget due to the practice of marking up the number of vehicles.

Based on the vehicle ownership documents, the number of official vehicles included in the routine expenditure was 3,873, far below the figure of 6,797 that was reported in the budget calculation.

Last Thursday, city secretary Fauzi Bowo revealed that the number stated in the budget calculation -- based on new findings -- rose to some 8,500 vehicles.

Kahfi said the figure was not final.

"As Fauzi has said, the new findings still have a lot of discrepancies, which means that investigations will take longer than expected," he said. (ylt)