Four officials named as graft suspects

JAKARTA (JP): Four high-ranking officials in the city administration were named suspects in corruption cases which cost the city some Rp 23.46 billion.

Deputy governor for administrative affairs Abdul Kahfi said on Tuesday that dossiers of the cases had been forwarded to the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office.

"The cases are being studied by the office," Kahfi, the head of the city reform team, said, refusing to give the names or positions of the officials.

A staff member in the city human resources agency, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Wednesday the four officials were Irnandi, head of the Civil Servants Corp (Korpri) Foundation; Daryanto, head of the entertainment division of the public order office; Thamrin, former chief director of city-run property company PD Sarana Jaya; and Dodo Yosida, head of the statistics and documentation division at the Jakarta Regional Development Planning Board (Bappeda).

Kahfi said on Tuesday a suspect from the Korpri Foundation had caused the administration losses of some Rp 10 billion.

"This man is responsible for marking up prices for the appropriation of a 13.5-hectare plot of land in Bogor for administration employees from 1996 to 1998," Kahfi said.

The land prices were marked up to between Rp 5,000 and Rp 20,000 per square meter, a substantial increase over the actual price of Rp 2,000 per square meter.

The official from the public order office reportedly received bribes amounting to Rp 300 million from owners of nightspots facing sanctions from the public order office.

"This was to get those owners off the hook," Kahfi said.

The executive at Sarana Jaya caused losses to the administration of some Rp 12.6 billion.

Kahfi said the executive claimed to have bought a plot of land for a housing complex for employees of city-owned Bank DKI.

"As of now, however, the land has not been given to the administration," he said.

An executive from Bappeda promised a developer city projects in return for Rp 556.8 million. Kahfi declined to give further details.

Kahfi said the officials from the public order office and Bappeda had been removed from their positions, but they still had to go through "legal proceedings in court".

He also said his team had found evidence of other cases of corruption, believed to involve 26 city employees.

Kahfi earlier said the reform team, which had come under fire for failing to bring any corruption cases to court, had not yet investigated 228 of the 374 cases of alleged corruption, collusion and nepotism uncovered by its members since the team was formed in June last year. (ylt)