'Kickbacks received by ministry officials'
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Deputy treasurer of the General Elections Commission (KPU) M. Dentjik admitted on Monday that the commission had paid kickbacks to two Ministry of Finance officials in a bid to facilitate the disbursement of Rp 2.7 trillion (US$270 million) in state funds proposed by the KPU to cover the costs of 2004 election supplies and operational costs.
KPU gave US$79,000 and Rp 110 million to the ministry's director of budget supervision, Soedji Darmono, as well as Ishak Harahap, the ministry's budget supervision division head from January to December 2004, Dentjik said in his testimony during the trial of KPU treasurer Hamdani Amin at the Anticorruption Court.
The two finance ministry officials are currently being prosecuted on charges of receiving bribes.
"I was ordered by Pak Hamdani Amin to pay the kickbacks to our colleagues at the ministry," Dentjik told the court.
Dentjik added that Soedji received around $40,000 and Rp 50 million, while Ishak got $39,000 and Rp 60 million.
The money was given to the two officials shortly after the KPU submitted its budget proposal for supplies and operational costs for the 2004 legislative election to the finance ministry.
Dentjik, who is being tried separately in the graft case, testified that neither Soedji nor Ishak gave receipts for the money, saying only that "we trust each other".
The witness, however, did not reply when presiding judge Mansyurdin Chaniago asked him whether government offices must record such cash flows.
The alleged bribery is only one in a series of graft cases uncovered by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), following the arrest of KPU commissioner Mulyana W. Kusuma, who was caught red-handed paying bribes to a state auditor in April.
Mulyana has been convicted to 31 months imprisonment for the crime. He is appealing the verdict.
A number of KPU officials, including KPU chairman Nazaruddin Syamsuddin, have been prosecuted for the graft cases. They are charged with accepting money or illicit funds collected by the KPU from a number of private contractors that won the tenders to produce election supplies.
The commission earlier won domestic and international praise for its success in administering the unprecedented direct legislative and presidential elections involving over 150 million voters in the country. No serious violent incidents occurred during the two elections that took place within a period of five months, and marked a peaceful transition of power that previously had eluded the country.