'Kickbacks received by ministry officials'

'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.