Hamid denies involvement in KPU scandal
Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Minister of Justice and Human Rights Hamid Awaluddin denied allegations that he had received kickbacks collected from private sector firms when he was still a serving member of the General Elections Commission (KPU).
Appearing for the first time in the Anticorruption Court as a witness in the trial of graft suspect Hamdani Amin, the head of the KPU finance department, the minister insisted that he had no knowledge about the kickbacks being collected by the defendant, but admitted that when he was a member of the KPU from May 2001 until October 2004, he received annual bonuses and lump-sum payments for overseas trips.
"Once I received Rp 12 million (about US$1,194) from the defendant as an annual bonus and US$3,500 as a lump-sum payment for an overseas trip. There was nothing else," said Hamid, who was appointed to the current Cabinet late last year and has played a key role in cementing a peace deal between the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
The high profile graft case at the KPU, which first surfaced in April, centers on, among other allegation, the mark-up of costs during the holding of last year's general elections, and the collection of kickbacks by KPU officials from private sector firms that won contracts from the commission.
Aside from Hamdani, other KPU commissioners and officials, including chairman Nazaruddin Syamsudin, have been charged as suspects in the case.
But Hamid and fellow former KPU member Anas Urbaningrum (now a member of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's party), and current commissioners Ramlan Surbakti, Chusnul Mar'iyah and Valina Singka Subekti have been spared prosecution. This has prompted criticism of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), which has investigated and is prosecuting the case, for lacking impartiality.
Critics say that the KPK should also put Hamid and other KPU officials on trial, particularly as earlier testimony by KPU officials indicated that they also may have received the kickbacks, which were paid into what was termed a "tactical fund".
Responding to Hamid's testimony, Hamdani said that he gave the witness a total of $110,000, made up of five payments, in 2004.
"In January, 2004, I gave him $15,000, in April $30,000, in June $25,000, in August $30,000 and in September $10,000," he said, adding that he had made payments out of the tactical fund to all the KPU commissioners and senior staff members. No receipts were issued.
Meanwhile, Ramlan and Chusnul gave similar testimony to Hamid's, saying that they had never received any of the kickback money.
Chusnul, for instance, insisted that she received only a monthly honorarium and annual bonus.
She admitted that she had received Rp 12 million from the defendant in October 2004, but claimed she did not know why she had been given the money.
KPU deputy secretary-general Sussongko Suhardjo said during a previous session of the trial last week that Chusnul had received a total of $110,000, made up of five payments, in 2004.
Ramlan said that he received a cellular phone, annual bonuses worth Rp 14.5 million and $44,900 from the defendant "but, I assumed that the money for the purchase of the cellular phones for all KPU members, the annual bonuses and the other money paid out to all employees was all taken from the commission's official budget."
He added that he handed over American dollars he had received from the commission to the KPK after learning of the graft case from reports in the media.