JP/4/kpk

JP/4/kpk

Southeast Sulawesi governor reported to KPK

Eva C. Komandjaja
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Another major graft case was being unveiled when the Indonesian
Corruption Watch (ICW) reported Southeast Sulawesi Governor Ali
Mazi to the Corruption Eradication Commission on Wednesday for
allegedly embezzling Rp 20.9 billion (US$2.3 million) from his
provincial budget.

Accompanied by representatives from the Southeast Sulawesi
Pro-Democracy Society (Prodem Sultra) and Adnan Topan Husodo of
ICW brought the case of Ali Mazi accused of marking up the budget
to buy and install four generators for a new power plant built in
Kendari last year.

The generators were bought from a German company, Deutz, and
were shipped by the Deutz Asia-Pacific from Singapore. Each has a
capacity of 375 kilovolt and 10,000 pk.

Both ICW and Prodem Sultra said Ali was found to have approved
the Rp 28 billion project, although the actual cost for the
project was only approximately Rp 7.1 billion.

Adnan said ICW and Prodem Sultra had obtained invoices from
Deutz Asia-Pacific that each generator cost roughly 150,000 euro.
Thus, the purchase of the four generators only cost around
600,000 euro or Rp 6.7 billion.

Accessories for the generators only added up around Rp 346
million, which made the total cost for the project less Rp 20.9
billion from the initial projected cost of Rp 28 billion.

"It's impossible that if they (the Ali Mazi administration)
spent the Rp 20.9 billion fund for the installation of the power
plant since the installation cost did not reach that high," Adnan
said.

He said the two organizations had studied a similar case in
Jambi province, where the installation of two generators cost
only around Rp 2.38 billion. The cost for installing four
generators would reach as high as around Rp 5 billion, he added.

"Therefore, we have concluded that Governor Ali Mazi had
misused the money and we've asked KPK to probe the case," Adnan
said.

Aside from the misuse, the project itself had already violated
Presidential Decree No. 18/2000 and No. 80/2003 because its
contractor, PT Pramindo Sapta Utama, was appointed directly by
the Southeast Sulawesi administration.

Under the regulations, any government project worth more than
Rp 50 million must be made available through public bidding.

According to the Southeast Sulawesi administration, it
directly appointed PT Pramindo because it was urgent for the
province to set up the power plant.

"Corruption Law No. 31/1999 states that direct appointment can
only be used in emergency state, in which the country is hit by a
natural disaster or monetary crisis. Direct appointment cannot be
used in any pressing situation," Adnan explained.

Hidayatullah of Prodem Sultra said the Southeast Sulawesi
legislative council had reported the Ali Mazi case to the
provincial prosecutors.

However, he said he was pessimistic that the prosecutors would
follow up the report as the number of graft cases in the province
was already high.

"Most graft cases that involved high-ranking government
officials had never been solved there. Most of them ended up in
compromises between suspects and prosecutors," Hidayatullah said.

He said the prosecutors had previously questioned Aminudin
Arif, who is a former head of the mining and energy agency in
Kendari, and Asep Gatot, project chief from the agency, in the
same case.

But the results of the probes were unclear, he added.

Sukris Prayitno from the KPK's complaint division said that he
would look into the case and examine whether all the documents
needed were complete.

"I cannot promise that KPK will investigate the case straight
away, but we can only promise that we will study it first.
Lately, we've received so many reports of graft cases," Sukris
said.