Dadang fails to produce data of food recipients
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.