Key witness in Bulog case admits document forgery

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A key witness in the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) corruption case admitted on Tuesday that he had falsified documents about the use of Rp 40 billion (US$4.09 million) that he received from former Minister/State Secretary Akbar Tandjung.

Dadang Sukandar, chairman of the Raudlatul Jannah Foundation, told the South Jakarta District Court that he had lied to the Attorney General's Office when he said that the money was used for charity.

The witness was testifying in the trial of former Bulog chairman, Rahardi Ramelan.

Dadang himself, along with Akbar, who is the House of Representatives speaker and the Golkar Party chairman, and Winfried Simatupang, a contractor, are being tried separately at the Central Jakarta District Court.

Winfried, according to the indictment, was the contractor responsible for the disbursement of food packages for the supposedly charitable project for the needy between March and September 1999.

Many believe that Akbar used the money for Golkar's 1999 election campaign. But Akbar insisted that he handed the money to the Raudlatul Jannah Foundation for the mirage-like aid project.

Strangely, Winfried paid Rp 40 billion back to the Attorney General's Office earlier this year, and claimed that he never used the money.

On the sidelines of Tuesday's hearing, Rahardi's lawyer Trimoelja D. Soerjadi questioned why the Attorney General's Office never bothered to check where the Rp 40 billion really went.

"It could be easily be concluded that the fund was channeled to Golkar. I wonder why prosecutors refused to look into that. It's not only about corruption, it's also about collusion. It's about taxpayers' money, they deserve to know where their money went," he told reporters.

However, during the hearing, prosecutor Kemas Yahya Rahman said that the prosecutors would not deal with the money's final destination.

"How the money was really used is not our business. The facts reveal that Akbar had obtained the money (from Rahardi). Case closed," he said.

On Tuesday, Dadang told the court that in November 2000, he handed over falsified documents to the prosecutors saying that all of the money had been used to buy staple food that was later distributed for the needy.

Dadang said that Winfried told him that he had only spent 10 percent of the Rp 40 billion fund for the charity project when Dadi Surjadi, a taxi driver who became the project manager, died in October 2000.

For four and a half hours, Dadang was questioned, but he was often warned by both the judges and the prosecutors because his statements were not consistent.

His statements, too, contradicted the testimony of several other witnesses, including Akbar.

The court will summon Dadang again next week to be confronted by other witnesses.

Earlier on Tuesday, former minister of defense/military chief Gen.(ret) Wiranto testified that he had received Rp 10 billion from Rahardi to be used for several military projects, including security for the UN-sponsored ballot in East Timor and to fund the military intelligence in securing the 1999 general elections here.

Rahardi, a former trade and industry minister as well as Bulog chief in president B.J. Habibie's administration in 1999, is on trial for alleged illegal misappropriation of Rp 62.9 billion of Bulog's non-budgetary funds.

According to the indictment, he gave Rp 40 billion to Akbar Tandjung, Rp 10 billion to Wiranto, and handed over the rest to various parties, including presidential guards and the national swim team.

Rahardi was formerly a chairman of the Indonesian Swimming Association.