Dadang fails to produce data of food recipients

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Chairman of the Raudlatul Jannah Foundation Dadang Iskandar failed on Tuesday to produce data on recipients of the Rp 40 billion food distribution program, but insisted that his organization had evidence that poor people in five provinces in Java received a total of 1.6 million packages in 1999.

"What we don't have is the data on recipients since it (the data) was kept by coordinators of the food distribution project," he said at the Attorney General's Office on Tuesday.

"I, as chairman of the foundation, didn't directly supervise the project because I entrusted it to the leader of the project," Dadang said.

He said his deputy, Dadi Suryadi, was in charge of supervising the overall distribution process. Dadi passed away in March 2000.

Dadang is one of the suspects in the Rp 54.6 billion financial scandal involving the State Logistics Agency (Bulog). Other suspects include House Speaker Akbar Tandjung and food distribution contractor Winfried Simatupang.

Akbar was questioned for the second time on Monday, in which he told state prosecutors that the Rp 40 billion food distribution program was not part of the Social Safety Net program but an emergency food distribution program specially ordered by then president B.J. Habibie. Winfried was summoned on Monday but failed to show up, reportedly for health reasons.

Attorney General's Office spokesman Barman Zahir told the media on Tuesday that the progress report that the Raudlatul Jannah Foundation submitted to Akbar was bills of lading of the food packages issued by two contractors: PT Artha Lapan Bintang Jaya and PT Trans Tigana Service.

Barman also said that contractor Winfried had already submitted a final report on the food distribution to Dadang, even before the project was completed.

The investigation team, led by Manaf Djubaedi, is expected to question Habibie as a suspect on Feb. 18. Habibie is now residing in Germany.