Ex-minister deemed responsible for haj fund misuse

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Investigators began on Tuesday the inquiry of former minister of religious affairs Said Agil Hussein Al-Munawar, who they believe was responsible for the misuse of huge sums of haj funds while in office.

Al-Munawar faced the music for the first time since police named him a suspect last week in the alleged scam which may have seen the embezzlement of over a trillion rupiah. During the questioning, which lasted eight hours, the investigators quizzed Al-Munawar about policies he made during his term as a minister between 2001 and 2004.

The director of the fraud unit at the National Police headquarters Brig. Gen. Indarto said that the ex-minister was ultimately responsible for the misuse as he had held the highest authority in the ministry.

"We have confiscated several documents belonging to the ministry and frozen the ministry's bank accounts," Indarto said. "We are currently studying dozens of ministerial decrees he (Al- Munawar) issued during his term to see whether there was anything to justify the use of the haj funds for spending unrelated to haj affairs."

The alleged misuse revolves around the Development Finance Comptroller Agency (BPKP) findings of irregularities in the management of unused haj pilgrimage funds by the ministry.

So far, BPKP has not finished the audit, but it has predicted that the case might involve nearly a trillion rupiah.

According to the law, the unused haj pilgrimage funds must be kept in one account and used for the benefit of the pilgrims, however, the funds were found to be allocated for a number eyebrow-raising expenditures, wholly unrelated to the haj pilgrimage; items that seemed to be geared more toward enriching ministry officials.

The interdepartmental anticorruption team has also named the ministry's former director general of Islamic guidance and haj management Taufiq Kamil a suspect.

Critics stated earlier that the ministry was prone to corruption as it held the monopoly to organize the pilgrimage for decades. An average of 200,000 mostly working class Indonesians perform the pilgrimage every year after paying the ministry of Rp 25 million each.

Head of the team Hendarman Supandji said that Al-Munawar would be detained once the investigators found incriminating evidence of his involvement in the scam.

Al-Munawar's lawyer Sugeng Teguh Santoso said his client had followed the regulations and had consulted with the House of Representatives over the use of the haj funds.

"Even if the ministry decided to disburse the funds, it would not violate any regulations and there was no misuse of the funds as they were deposited in the accounts frozen by the police," he argued.

In response, Indarto said the investigators found that ministry officials consulted with the House only on the amount to charge people for the haj fees.

Indarto said the police would verify the matter with the lawmakers.

The investigators also plan to question former religious ministers Tarmidzi Taher and Tolchah Hassan.