JP/5/korup

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.