Haj corruption charge probed

Haj corruption charge probed

JAKARTA: Police have begun investigating allegations of
corruption in the Ministry of Religious Affairs by summoning its
head of legal and public relations, Arifin Nurdin.

The issue centers on the ministry's failure to raise the quota
for haj participants and on allegations that several ministry
officials had enriched themselves from organizing the pilgrimage.

The National Police posed 22 questions to Arifin, who said
that procuring an increase in haj quotas for the two previous
years from the Saudi Arabian government had not been a problem.
However, he said Saudi Arabia's rejection of a request to
increase the 2004 quota for Indonesia was unexpected.

Analysts often link this, as well as other negative reports on
this year's haj, to the possible misuse of haj funds.

Previously, a coalition for haj reform had urged the Public
Servants' Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN; now replaced by the
KPK), to reexamine the wealth of Minister of Religious Affairs
Said Agiel Al-Munawwar, who was reported to have drastically
increased his wealth from Rp 1.22 billion in 2001 to Rp 2.54
billion in 2003.

In Indonesia, unlike in other Muslim countries where the
private sector manages haj travel, the government, through the
religious affairs ministry, oversees arrangements for the annual
pilgrimage. -- JP