Former regent named suspect in graft case

Bengkulu Prosecutor's Office named the former regent of South Bengkulu and a high-ranking official of the regental administration as suspects in a corruption case, on Thursday.

They were suspected of involvement in an irregularity in a feasibility study of a stone mining project in the regency.

The scandal began last year when the suspects signed an agreement with the president director of Graha Pantura Adibindo (GPA), who claimed that the company mined stones for use in cement. The company said that it would conduct a feasibility study before the commencement of the project.

It was agreed that the regental administration would pay the company Rp 5.2 billion (US$650,000) for a feasibility study on the project. In return, the regental administration would be entitled to a share of the company's profits.

A staff member of the Bengkulu Prosecutor's Office, who requested anonymity, said the suspects claimed that they had channeled Rp 1.2 billion to the company for surveying, transportation, overhead costs and others. However, the prosecutors' investigation uncovered that the company had not done any work. While some Rp 700 million in funds had been returned to the former regent.

The prosecutors dug deeper and found that the company was not a mining company but a real estate company. The prosecutors had frozen the former regent's bank account for the purpose of their investigation.

The five-year term of the former regent ended on March 17, when he was replaced by Fauzan Djamil.

Prosecutor Jhonny Ginting, an assistant of the special crime division of the Bengkulu Prosecutor's Office, is looking into the case. -- Antara