Ginadjar to seek aid of envoy over graft reports

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)