Ex-KPU members yet to return cars

Moch. N. Kurniawan and Yogita Tahilramani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Over 50 former staff members of the General Elections Commission (KPU) and political party officials have yet to return 77 operational vehicles.

KPU member Imam Budidarmawan Prasodjo said on Thursday the agency had badgered the officials verbally and with formal letters, but without success.

"Former staff members of KPU, via the Ministry of Home Affairs, have written a letter to President Megawati Soekarnoputri in the hope that she will allow them to keep the vehicles. To date, the President hasn't responded. We hope she says no to them," Imam told a hearing of House Commission II, which oversees legal and home affairs.

The vehicles range from motorcycles to Kijang vans lent to them by KPU for election work and campaigning in the 1999 elections, a 2001 report of the State Audit Agency (BPK) says.

"We strongly urge these officials to return the vehicles as they belong to KPU," Imam said.

Officials of the Golkar Party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) and the National Awakening Party (PKB) were among those who have refused to return borrowed vehicles.

According to data obtained by The Jakarta Post, prominent figures, such as former KPU chief Rudini, Golkar Party deputy secretary-general Mahadi Sinambela and former president Abdurrahman Wahid's spokesman Yahya C. Staquf, are among figures who have not yet returned cars to KPU.

The "vehicle scandal" is just one of numerous irregularities discovered by BPK during its scrutiny of KPU between May and June last year.

Another BPK finding was that 6,000 unidentified typewriters were procured via "unclear tendering methods" by KPU.

Legislators noted on Thursday that the vehicle scandal indicated that KPU was weak in resolving disputes. The KPU general secretariat, which conducts all operational activities of KPU and administers elections, functions under the auspices of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The 1999 election, though hailed as democratic, was marred by vote-rigging, bribery and extortion.

Political figures who have yet to return KPU cars: Rudini (former Minister of Home Affairs), Mahadi Sinambela of Golkar party, Sri Bintang Pamungkas of PUDI, C.M.L. Sitompul of PDI Perjuangan, Yahya C. Staquf of PKB.