Customs officials face probe over rice import scam

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Following the arrest of five junior officials of the customs and excise office, the Attorney General's Office (AGO) plans to question two senior officials over their alleged role in the illegal import of rice from Vietnam, which caused state losses of around Rp 24 billion (US$2.4 million).

Deputy Attorney General for special crimes Hendarman Supandji said on Wednesday that his team would question an official from the directorate general of customs and excise and another from the directorate's Jakarta office.

"We will ask them why they allowed 60,000 tons of rice, imported by a private company, to enter Indonesian territory through their customs and excise office," Hendarman said.

He added that the two senior officers were second echelon bureaucrats who were only identified with the initials FR and SP.

The case started after a firm called PT Hexatama Finindo imported 60,000 tons of rice from Vietnam in 2003 in cooperation with state-owned village cooperative umbrella organization PT Inkud.

However, Hexatama did not pay all of the import duty for all of the imported rice. It allegedly forged documents stating that the rice shipments only weighed 900 tons. Therefore, the unpaid tax was estimated at more than Rp 24 billion.

The five junior officers who had been arrested all claimed that their bosses were also involved in the case, and now the AGO intends to question the senior officials.

"We will only question them as witnesses for now. Later we will name them suspects, but not now," Hendarman said.

Asked whether a former head of the intelligence division at the customs and excise office was among the senior officials to be questioned, Hendarman told journalists to wait for the prosecutors to finish their investigations.

The case was first revealed after an anticorruption watchdog reported two House of Representatives members, Setya Novanto and Idrus Markham, to the AGO and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in February. Both men are from Golkar Party.

However, the AGO has yet to charge the two legislators, who allegedly signed the contracts for the rice imports. But Hexatama director Gordanius Setyo Lelono, who is Novanto's brother, is a suspect in the case. Novanto was also implicated in the high- profile 1999 Bank Bali scandal, although a court later acquitted the senior lawmaker.