Councillors and officials to be charged for Ancol scam

JAKARTA (JP): City officials and councillors allegedly involved in the Ancol-funded overseas trip scam would be charged with corruption, a prosecutor said on Monday.

H.S. Purba, a member of the team of city prosecutors handling the case, said the investigation being conducted by the team has decided to focus on corruption due to the possibility that some 40 city officials and councillors had received a double allowance for the trip, namely one allowance from the city budget and one from PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol, the developer of the Ancol recreation park which is 80 percent owned by the city administration.

"The officials said they never received any allowances from the company or from the city administration's budget. This is strange, however, because it was an official trip and they claimed that they financed the trip from their own resources," Purba told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

"I bet these officials must be rich as they did not care about their allowances," he remarked.

A reliable source in the Jakarta administration had earlier disclosed that three senior city officials in the tour group, namely Jakarta Development Agency head Bambang Sungkono, City Land Agency chief Ahmaddin Ahmad, and his deputy Nurfakih, had all received between $5,000 and $10,000 in cash from PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol.

But Bambang, one of the three suspects, said after being questioned by Purba and his colleagues, that he had denied the allegation, saying that he only received a return air ticket and an accommodation allowance worth $7,000 from the developer.

The city administration, he insisted, gave him nothing at all.

Purba explained that Bambang and the other two officials, Ahmad and Nurfakih were grilled on Monday by the team of prosecutors to collect as much prima facie evidence about the case as possible.

So far, "we have not yet assigned any legal status to these officials," Purba said.

Of the three officials, only Nurfakih failed to appear. "He was sick," Purba explained.

The case, which was unveiled last week, centers on allegations that PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol paid Rp 2.1 billion to fund overseas trips for a group of councillors and city officials between Oct. 9 and Oct. 15.

The city administration allocated Rp 13 billion from its budget for the current fiscal year to pay for the trips.

The group of travelers was divided into three destinations -- South Africa, Australia and Japan.

The case initially involved only those people on the trip to South Africa, which was officially aimed at allowing the visiting councillors and officials to study a waterfront reclamation project in Cape Town.

The management of PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol and those participating in the trip have repeatedly denied the allegation. They claim the firm paid the travel costs in advance and that the money was to be repaid from the city budget and money provided by Tanjung Priok seaport operator PT Pelindo II.

Separately, sources in the gubernatorial office told the Post that Bambang would be fired by the governor from his current post in the next two or three days. He could be replaced by the current City Housing Agency Chief Irzal Djamal.

When asked to comment on the matter, the governor said the dismissal of Bambang would only be carried out based on the final recommendation of the city prosecutors' team

Meanwhile on Monday, some 100 people claiming to be members of the Jakarta chapter of Pemuda Pancasila (Pancasila Youth) staged a protest at the City Council, demanding that the full details of the alleged scam be made public.

The protesters, mostly wearing their orange uniforms, arrived at 10:15 a.m. and gave speeches in the parking lot. Around 20 of them met with six members of the Council.

"We demand that an independent team involving members of the public question all the officials and councillors allegedly involved in the case," secretary of the group, Rudy Darmawanto, said.

Meanwhile, a councillor, Djafar Badjaber of the United Development Party (PPP), said that all factions were deeply concerned over the case, which had shamed all of the members of the City Council.

Another councillor, Binsar Tambunan of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), said there was a presumption of innocence which had to be upheld.

"We'll wait for the results of the investigation," said Binsar. (dja/07)