Former forestry minister questioned over graft case
JAKARTA (JP): Former minister of forestry and plantations Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo was questioned on Thursday at the Attorney General's Office in connection with timber tycoon Mohamad "Bob" Hasan's alleged corruption cases.
Djamaludin, who served the ministry from 1993 to 1998, said he had been summoned as a witness to explain an US$87 million government contract to perform aerial mapping and airborne radar imaging of forestry resources.
The contract was given to Bob's company PT Mapindo Parama which was appointed without any bidding. The money was paid using reforestation funds.
Djamaludin said the company's name was proposed to his office by the Indonesian Forest Concessionaires Association (APHI) and was also recommended by the Coordinating Body for Survey and National Charting Development Board (Bakorsutanal).
"The instruction to hire the company and to use the forestation funds came in a notice sent by the Secretary of State and signed by then president Soeharto," he told journalists after being questioned for two hours by prosecutors.
A Ministry of Forestry and Plantation report last month stated that the techniques applied in the mapping were obsolete and not economical and the results failed to meet specifications agreed on in the contract.
Bob, who was APHI's chairman when the project was underway, had been named a suspect in alleged corruption on March 28 and is currently under custody of the Attorney General's Office.
Bob's lawyer, Augustinus Hutajulu, earlier claimed that his client only owned 49 percent of PT Mapindo's shares.
Augustinus pointed out that another 30 percent was owned by the Dana Karya Abadi Foundation, one of Soeharto's charity foundations.
Later that day, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Forestry and Plantations Suripto said that his office and the Attorney General's Office were already preparing to look into another irregular government contract within the ministry's ranks.
Questions
Apart from Djamaludin, former chief of the State Logistics Agency Bustanil Arifin was questioned by state prosecutors as a witness in the Soeharto corruption case.
Bustanil after the questioning told journalists that he was summoned because he is treasurer of the Amal Bhakti Muslim Pancasila Foundation, another Soeharto-owned foundation.
Bustanil denied allegations that the foundation asked for presidential decrees and government regulations to amass funds from civil workers grouped in the Indonesian Civil Servants Corps (Korpri) and members of the National Military Force.
"We never submitted a proposal to the government to help us in amassing funds. It was their own initiative that the two institutions obliged members to donate to us," he told journalists after being questioned for five hours.
He added that the then military chief, Gen. (ret.) L.B. Moerdani, issued a regulation in 1983 for military officers to monthly donate to the foundations by siphoning Rp 50 to Rp 2,000 from their salaries after learning that Korpri had imposed the same regulations. (01)