Home minister staff member jailed for misusing funds

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

The district court in Bandung, West Java, sentenced on Tuesday a former secretary of the West Java administration and currently an expert staff member at the Ministry of Home Affairs to 1.5 years in jail for his involvement in the misuse of Rp 16 billion.

The court found administration secretary Ragam Santika guilty of misusing his power to disburse Rp 16 billion from the provincial budget to Al-Ihsan foundation during his tenure between 1994 and 1998.

Ragam was also fined Rp 15 million.

Previously, the court also sentenced the province's Deputy Governor Ukman Sutaryan to 2.5 years in jail for corruption which caused Rp 27.9 billion in losses to the state. Ukman is also the chairman of the Al-Ihsan foundation.

Ragam's sentence was more lenient than what had been demanded by prosecutor Azizzul Hakim, who asked the court to sentence the defendant to eight years in prison and fine him Rp 30 million.

"The defendant as a government official who knows exactly the procedure of using the budget has apparently misused the fund for the benefit of certain people," said Hazli, the presiding judge.

Ragam said that actually as a secretary he only obeyed what had been ordered by his superior, namely Deputy Governor Ukman Sutaryan. But the judge said that his action still violated Article 1 of Regulation No. 31, 1971 as he collaborated with other people in the crime.

The judge said that Ragam was also involved in misallocating Rp 1.065 billion from the budget for certification of Cipondoh lake in Tangerang, which should not have been financed by the West Java administration.

According to the judge, he doled out a more lenient sentence to Ragam because he had served the country for more than 35 years and had held many important positions, including Sukabumi regent and now as an expert staff member of home minister Hari Sabarno.

He also said that he behaved well during his trial and admitted his wrongdoing.

Ragam, however, will not be directly put into jail as he is ill and the judge is waiting for his medical report.

Unlike Ukman's trial, Ragam's trial was not marked by protests and was very quiet. Less than 100 visitors attended the trial. Ragam was only accompanied by one of his sons.

Ragam said he would appeal the verdict to a higher court. "The judge was very ambiguous. He said that I took no money from the fund for myself, and the state ended up suffering no losses as all the money was returned. But still he sentenced me," he said.

His lawyer, Rudy Gunawan, said that his client should be acquitted from the all of the charges as they were implemented by Ragam upon Governor Nuriana's approval.

"Pak Ragam always reported to Governor Nuriana what he had done, but the governor said he had never been informed," said Rudy.