Kalla swears he was not involved in haj fund scandal

Eva C. Komandjaja and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Vice President Jusuf Kalla dismissed on Wednesday the allegation that he was involved in the multibillion rupiah haj funds scandal, saying that he had acted on state instructions.

"I could cover the cost (of my own trip) with my own funds when it came to the haj pilgrimage. It's the minister of religious affairs who appointed ministers (to lead Indonesia's haj delegation) with an approval from the president," he told reporters after opening a seminar on Wednesday.

Kalla said that he was appointed to lead the Indonesia haj delegation in 2002 when he was the coordinating minister for people's welfare, along with the minister of social affairs.

"As such, we don't know about the sources of the funds. It was our haj duty and not travel for leisure," he said.

The lawyer of a former minister, Ayuk F. Shahab, said Tuesday that seven top government officials performed a haj pilgrimage which was covered by the misused haj funds.

Police are questioning former religious minister Said Agil Hussein Al-Munawar in the scandal. Al-Munawar who had been named a suspect and was questioned for nine hours on Tuesday came to the police office at 9 a.m. on Wednesday. Police were still questioning him late in the evening on Wednesday.

Offering his sympathy to Al-Munawar, Kalla said that the former minister was not guilty, because the practice of appointing state officials to lead the haj pilgrimage had been done for years.

Every year, top government officials are appointed to lead the haj delegation and the travel is considered a duty.

Minister of Social Affairs Bachtiar Chamsyah also denied that he had used haj funds to perform the haj pilgrimage in 2002 citing similar reasons.

"I performed the haj pilgrimage in 2002 because I was appointed by religious affairs minister Al-Munawar as haj delegation leader," Bachtiar said as quoted by Antara.

He said he was not sure where his haj pilgrimage funds came from. He added that he only knew that his pilgrimage was paid by the government.

Hundreds of thousands of Indonesians make a haj pilgrimage every year. Last year, the number topped 200,000 with each pilgrim paying about Rp 25 million.

The alleged misuse was found after the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP) audited the ministry's accounts and discovered a series of irregularities on the management of haj funds.

The unused haj money was supposed to be stored in a single account and used for the benefit of haj pilgrims but the ministry had several accounts and used it for ministry purposes allegedly unrelated to the haj pilgrimage.

The funds were allegedly used to finance government officials trips to Saudi Arabia for the haj.

Anticorruption director at the National Police headquarters Brig. Gen. Indarto told The Jakarta Post that the investigators decided not to detain Al-Munawar on Wednesday since the inquiry was focused on his policies during his term as minister.

"The investigators told me that they could not detain him right now, but we will consider detaining him tomorrow (Thursday)," Indarto said.

Another suspect, former director general of Islamic guidance and haj management Taufiq Kamil, has been in detention since last Friday.

Indarto said that the investigators had not yet questioned Al- Munawar about the haj fund misuse saying that it would be conducted on Thursday because they did not have much time.

Although the religion ministry is under fire following the news of this scandal, the ministry has not been deterred from raise the haj fee for next year due to the rising price of aviation fuel.

Minister of Religious Affairs Maftuh Basyuni said that he and Garuda Indonesia, as the official carrier for Indonesian haj pilgrims, would discuss the matter later in the week.