Haj scam may drag down two more ex-ministers

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The haj fund scandal involving billions of dollars at the Ministry of Religious Affairs will likely implicate two other former ministers Tarmidzi Taher and Tolchah Hasan.

The interdepartmental corruption eradication team has named as a suspect in the case former religious affairs minister Said Aqil Hussein Al-Munawar, who earlier demanded that Tarmidzi and Tolchah, both his predecessors, be also summoned.

The team detained on Friday the ministry's director general of Islamic guidance and haj management, Taufiq Kamil, as a suspect after a marathon questioning session at the National Police headquarters over the alleged misuse of trillions of rupiah collected from pilgrims over the years.

Brig. Gen. Indarto, the police's anticorruption department director, said on Sunday all people believed responsible for the management of the money would be questioned, including Tarmidzi and Tolchah.

Tarmidzi was the religious affairs minister from 1993 to 1998 during the Soeharto regime, when the collection of haj funds started. His replacement, Tolchah, later held office for two years from 1999, while Al-Munawar replaced Tolchah in 2001 for three years before being replaced by the current administration in October 2004.

Tarmidzi said on Sunday he was ready to explain the whole issue of the haj fund scam if he was summoned by the police for questioning.

He argued that the massive graft case was mainly caused by individual faults instead of regulations, because the ministry officials are required by law to hold a plenary meeting before making decisions on how to use the funds.

The fund management board, chaired by the minister of religious affairs, must also report the spending of the money regularly to the President and the House of Representatives, he added.

"The person who holds the responsibility for the funds has committed a mistake in this case. It is unclear whether he did not report the use of the funds to the President or whether he violated the procedures," Tarmidzi was quoted by the detickom news portal as saying.

Indarto added that other people from outside the ministry, such as partner firms during haj pilgrimages, would also be investigated.

"But we are starting from officials of the religious affairs ministry," he said.

He said Taufiq Kamil was detained after the police found evidence that he had used some of the funds for his own personal benefit. However, Indarto declined to specify the amount.

Indarto dismissed reports that Taufiq had spent Rp 99 billion of the haj funds for himself and that Al-Munawar pocketed Rp 98 billion.

Indarto said the investigators also found alleged markups in the amounts of money taken allotted for basic food assistance for 14 provinces. He did not elaborate further.

The graft case only came to light recently after the Development Finance Controller (BPKP) submitted an audit report that discovered a series of irregularities in the haj fund management at the religious affairs ministry.

The BPKP was still auditing several bank accounts belonging to the ministry, many of which were recently frozen by the police.

Under the prevailing law, the haj pilgrimage funds must be kept in one account and used for the benefits of pilgrims during their stay in Saudi Arabia.

But the investigation showed that the funds had been deposited in a number of bank accounts, some of which had no connection with the annual pilgrimage.

Separately, People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker Hidayat Nur Wahid said on Sunday that the haj funds should not be managed by an agency that lacked transparency.

"There must be a system to make sure that the funds would not be used for any other purposes rather than haj pilgrims," he told Antara.

Hidayat also urged all religious ministry officials to cooperate with the police, the Corruption Eradication Corruption (KPK) and also other law enforcement officials to solve the case.