KPU Jakarta graft suspects all jailed
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
All three Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPU Jakarta) graft suspects have been taken into custody by the prosecutor's office, with commission member A. Riza Patria the last to be put behind bars on Friday.
The suspects, including chairman Muhammad Taufik and treasurer Neneng Euis Palupi, allegedly misused Rp 168.6 billion (US$17.5 million) in city budget funds for the 2004 elections.
Apart from receiving money from the city budget, KPU Jakarta also received Rp 5.5 billion from the state budget.
Jakarta Prosecutor's Office spokesman Hartono said Riza was sent to Salemba Penitentiary, Central Jakarta, after hours of questioning.
Taufik is being detained at the South Jakarta Prosecutor's Office detention center, while Neneng is being detained at the Pondok Bambu Women's Penitentiary in East Jakarta.
"We detained Riza and the other two to prevent them from running away or destroying evidence," Hartono told The Jakarta Post.
The chairman of the investigating team, Syaeful Taher, said Riza's questioning focused on his role in the procurement of election materials, which was apparently not conducted in accordance with the law.
Syaeful pointed out that Presidential Decree No.80/2003 on procurements for government goods and services stipulates that biddings for goods and services that are financed through state/regional budgets must be conducted by civil servants.
The KPU Jakarta members are not civil servants.
"He (Riza) was the second most responsible figure for the procurement of election materials after Taufik," Syaeful told the Post.
Syaeful said Riza was uncooperative during interrogation as he gave complicated answers in response to questions from the team.
Investigation into the alleged corruption in the KPUD is based on reports made by City Council's Commission A for legal and administrative affairs, which found a number of irregularities in good and service procurements.
Commission A, which investigated the alleged misuse of funds by KPU Jakarta members during the 2004 elections, said earlier that it had found irregularities resulting in state losses amounting to Rp 13 billion.
It alleged that the poll commission had failed to pay Rp 4.2 billion in personnel income and value-added taxes.
It also discovered questionable tenders and an alleged markup in the purchase of 180,000 vests for Rp 12 billion (or Rp 66,000 each). The price was far higher than the market price of Rp 25,000 per vest, the commission said.
The commission has also been accused of marking up the rent on three houses it uses for offices in Kepulauan Seribu regency, as it apparently only paid Rp 25 million a year to the owners of the houses, not the Rp 170 million for the three houses that it reported.