Councillors get Rp 30 m 'bribe'

Councillors get Rp 30 m 'bribe'

JAKARTA: The speaker of the Bogor municipal council has
admitted to receiving Rp 1.59 billion of taxpayer money in late
February from Mayor Iswara Natanegara and distributed the money
to council members - Rp 30 million each.

Mochamad Sahid, the council speaker, however, told reporters
on Thursday that the money had nothing to do with their approval
of the mayor's accountability speech last month, Antara reported.

The scandal was revealed to the public by Nelwan Zola,
secretary general of the non-governmental organization, The
Indonesian Reform Movement (GerIndo), earlier this week.

Zola said that an investigation conducted by GerIndo found
that the mayor authorized the transfer of the government funds to
Sahid through a letter -- No.931/464/RT/2003 -- dated Feb. 28,
2003. GerIndo requested an explanation from both the mayor and
the council speaker about the money. Sahid said he was busy, and
the mayor refused to respond.

On April 30, Gerindo reported the case to the local
prosecutor's office. A week later, after no response from the
prosecutors, Nelwan revealed the scandal to the press. --JP