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