Contractors come out in defense of Akbar

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Even though Attorney General M.A. Rachman has reiterated that there was no distribution of food for the poor in 1999, as claimed by House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung, two contractors, who claimed they handled the project, insisted they had carried it out.

Rahman said at a fast-breaking gathering on Tuesday that his office had still not found any evidence to indicate that the Bulog funds were actually used in 1999 to buy basic commodities for the poor, the most affected by the economic crisis.

He said that, based on random checks conducted by his subordinates in a number of provinces, no evidence was found that suggested local residents received food from Raudlatul Jannah Islamic Foundation, which had claimed to be in charge of procuring the food aid.

"The client organized the food distribution in several regions. But I can't reveal the exact locations because the question is too detailed for me to answer," Sabar Ompusunggu, a lawyer for Tulak Pangmanapan, the director of PT Artha Lapan Jaya and Jan Palembong, the director of PT Trans Tigana Service, told reporters, after his clients were questioned at the Attorney General's Office.

Dadang Sukandar, chairman of the foundation, claimed earlier that, in handling the project, he had assigned four contractors that included companies that both Pangmanapan and Palembong had contracted out to carry out the food distribution.

Both Pangmanapan and Palembong were grilled by investigators on the alleged misuse of some Rp 40 billion of nonbudgetary funds belonging to State Logistic Agency (Bulog), which implicated Akbar, who is also chairman of the Golkar Party.

However, Sabar, along with Pangmanapan and Palembong, refused to reveal any more details concerning the case.

Dadang claimed that he had received funds to provide food to several regions in Jakarta, Yogyakarta, East Java, Central Java and West Java. Dadang also claimed that the project had distributed a total of 1.62 million packages to 1,600 villages in 64 regencies.