East Kalimantan council accused of graft by NGO

Rusman, Samarinda

The revelation of corruption in legislative councils across the country continues unabated following the conviction of almost all West Sumatra councillors in a collective graft scam.

A non-governmental organization (NGO) in East Kalimantan urged on Monday the provincial prosecutor's office to summon immediately all 45 members of the provincial council for alleged misuse of Rp 5.4 billion (US$600,000) from the budget.

The NGO State Wealth Concern (PKN) said the money was allocated for operational expenditure of the council but was distributed to each of the members for their personal benefit before they ended their five-year terms in September.

"It's obviously in violation of existing rules. Prosecutors should take an active role in investigating the case without waiting for reports from residents," PKN executive director Achmad Basori said in the East Kalimantan capital, Samarinda.

He said distribution of the funds was deliberately engineered to extract money from the budget for their personal gain after the councillors did not receive pensions at the end of their term.

"We suspected for a long time that they (the councillors) would spend public money in this way," he added.

According to Basori, the council issued two decisions last month to allocate as much as Rp 4.5 billion of the Rp 42.3 billion in council operational funds to the 45 councillors as a cash payment.

Each received Rp 100 million in addition to Rp 20 million earmarked from the council's health allowance of Rp 900 million, he added.

"Consequently, the members received in total Rp 120 million each from the budget," Basori stressed.

He said the East Kalimantan Prosecutor's Office should regard the two decrees dated May 18, 2004, as concrete evidence to charge the councillors with collective corruption.

He said his organization would soon hand over evidence to the Attorney General's Office and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to help pressure prosecutors in East Kalimantan to investigate the matter.

"We doubt the credibility of the prosecutor's office here because it has not been proactive in dealing with graft cases in the province," Basori argued.

In response to the demand, East Kalimantan Prosecutor's Office head D.H. Panjaitan said his staff were studying several corruption allegations involving legislative and executive bodies in the province.

"We shall establish teams to investigate these cases if prima facie evidence of corruption is found," he said.

Panjaitan called on the public not to hesitate to provide prosecutors with firm evidence of corruption against local officials and councillors.

Last month, Padang District Court jailed 43 members of the 55- strong West Sumatra legislative council in a graft scandal.

The conviction appears to have had a domino effect in other regions, as similar scams were also revealed in other provincial and regental councils across the country, with many councillors named as suspects.