Ginadjar to seek aid of envoy over graft reports
JAKARTA (JP): Coordinating Minister for Economy, Finance and Industry Ginandjar Kartasasmita said he planned to ask the Japanese government to investigate corruption reports involving Japanese companies.
Ginandjar said he would send a letter to Japanese Ambassador to Indonesia Takao Kawakami concerning press reports that a number of Japanese contractor firms had bribed Indonesian government officials.
"We want to use the results of their investigations," Ginandjar said after a meeting with President B.J. Habibie and other Cabinet ministers at Merdeka Palace.
Major Japanese newspapers reported earlier this month that Japanese contractor Kajima Corp. had bribed Indonesian tax officials 80 million yen (US$660,000) to settle tax negotiations.
Kajima won 21 construction contracts in Indonesia between 1994 and 1997, worth a total of 22 billion yen.
Reports also touched on other construction giants including Taisei Corp., Obayashi Corp., Tokai Kogyo and Tekken. Obayashi allegedly paid 120 million yen to obtain project contracts, while Taisei bribed tax officials 30 million yen. Tokai reportedly paid Ministry of Education officials bribes worth 10 million yen for a project at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB).
Tekken allegedly paid 40 million yen to former president Soeharto's associates to win the railway construction project in Jakarta.
Many of the projects were financed by the Japanese government. Yomiuri Shimbun recently reported that Tekken, through local company Udinda, distributed 80 percent of the bribes to the State Secretariat, National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) and other government officials.
Ginandjar, who was chairman of Bappenas from 1993 to 1998, refused to comment on the bribing incidents, saying the reported scandals occurred in 1988.
The state minister of national development planning and present Bappenas chairman, Boediono, said they were "still investigating" the reports.
Rampant corruption here has attracted the attention of donor countries and international organizations. The World Bank has accused the Ministry of Education for corruption in the procurement of text books for schools.
Antara on Monday quoted the World Bank's statement as saying that the procurement process was not transparent, and very complicated. It suggested total revision in next year's procurement project.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives is currently deliberating on two bills related to corruption, and also the issues of corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN) in the bill on clean governance.
The latter bill would require all officials to declare their wealth, before and after their terms in office, to a permanent monitoring commission set up by the president. This is aimed at deterring state officials from using their power to illegally gain wealth.
Minister of Justice Muladi dismissed fears over the president's role, saying the DPR will also play an important role in the commission.
"Half of its members would be appointed by the president and half of them by the House... and they could not be dismissed by the president alone without the House's consent," Muladi said after attending a hearing with the House.
Muladi said, however, the commission would have no authority to conduct investigations into alleged corrupt practices.
"A subcommission will investigate once there's an alleged KKN case, after which the case would be submitted to police or to prosecutors," he said. (prb/aan/43)