Former forestry minister questioned over graft case

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)