JP/5/korup
Dozens of ex-councillors join list of graft suspects
The Jakarta Post Kupang/Makassar/Jayapura
Dozens of former councillors have joined an ever-growing list of officials and ex-officials allegedly implicated in corruption cases across the country.
East Nusa Tenggara Police said on Wednesday they would soon name all 35 former members of the South Timor Tengah legislative council as suspects in a graft case involving Rp 1.4 billion (US$155,555).
The fund was allocated from the regency's 2003 budget as gratuity payment for council members as their five-year terms drew to a close. Each councillor received Rp 40 million that August.
The police brought graft charges against members of the 1999- 2004 council -- some of whom were reelected in April for the 2004-2009 period -- because the allocation was not regulated by law.
"After investigating the case and questioning witnesses, we found indications of state losses, so the 35 councillors who received gratuity payments will soon be declared suspects," East Nusa Tenggara Police chief Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang said.
He said the office would place all suspects under arrest if any of them posed a flight risk or appeared liable to destroy evidence.
Aritonang said they were awaiting permission from the central bank to question the Soe branch head of East Nusa Tenggara Bank, Niko Bere Enok, as a key witness in the case.
The Rp 1.4 billion was reportedly transferred from the local bank directly to the suspects' individual accounts.
South Timor Tengah secretary Ruben Isac confirmed that administrative irregularities existed in the disbursement of the gratuity payment.
"Maybe the disbursement procedures were incorrect because it was not regulated in prevailing laws," Ruben added.
However, all ex-councilors had returned the money, so the state did not incur losses, he said.
South Timor Tengah Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Jannes Sinurat said police had reported the graft case to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in Jakarta for further investigation.
Separately, South Sulawesi Police chief Insp. Gen. Saleh Saaf said on Wednesday senior provincial councillor Eddy Baramuli had been named a suspect in a corruption case involving Rp 18.23 billion of the province's 2003 budget.
Police have named 16 other suspects, including 12 councillors who were reelected for a 2004-2009 term, in the same case.
Saaf said Eddy, who was the South Sulawesi council speaker at the time the alleged crime was committed and is now a deputy chairman of a provincial Golkar Party chapter, was charged in the case because he was deemed to have known about the transfer of funds from the council secretariat to the budget committee.
Additional suspects could be named, as the money was distributed illegally to all council members for the 1999-2004 period, Saaf said.
Eddy, who is a younger brother to a former chairman of the now-defunct Supreme Advisory Council (DPA), Ahmad Arnold Baramuli, was appointed as South Sulawesi council speaker in 2003 to replace Amin Syam. Amin is the current provincial governor.
Saaf said the police had summoned Eddy two days ago for questioning on Thursday over the graft case.
Meanwhile, the Papua Prosecutor's Office handed on Wednesday the dossiers of three graft suspects to the Jayapura District Court.
The three are Mimika port authority head Robert Naa, treasurer Abdul Hakim Syarifuddin and another subordinate, Yusuf Duwit, who have all been charged with embezzling Rp 1.5 billion in "fees" paid by PT Freeport Indonesia between 2000 and 2002.