KPUD members summoned over alleged embezzlement

KPUD members summoned over alleged embezzlement

Bambang Nurbianto
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The City Council is now looking into alleged embezzlement by
other members of the Jakarta Elections Commission (KPUD) in 2004,
less than two weeks after the arrest of General Elections
Commission (KPU) member Mulyana W. Kusuma for alleged bribery.

"We will summon KPUD members on Wednesday. We will ask them to
provide a detailed report on its spending financed by the city
budget," said member of the council's commission A for legal and
administrative affairs, Rois Hadayana Syaugie, on Monday.

Rois questioned a Rp 170 million (US$18,888) annual rental fee
for a house used for the KPUD Secretariat in Kepulauan Seribu
regency.

"I don't think that there is a house in the regency that has a
rental fee reaching Rp 170 million a year," he said.

The city administration allocated Rp 140 billion for
provincial and regional to organize three elections in 2004. This
year, it set aside another Rp 3.24 billion for the operational
costs of the KPUDs.

Corruption allegations involving KPU and KPUD members were
widespread during the 2004 elections, especially regarding the
procurement of election materials. The arrest of Mulyana last
week was the first sign of a serious investigation into the
allegations.

Mulyana, who is now detained at the Salemba Penitentiary in
Central Jakarta, has denied a charge of trying to bribe a State
Audit Office Official with Rp 300 million.

KPU Jakarta chairman Muhammad Taufik, meanwhile, refused to
comment on the alleged embezzlements in the city before he had
the results of an internal investigation.

A Development and Finance Comptroller (BPKP) auditor said
earlier that his office had found a number of fake documents
regarding procurements of goods by the KPUD Kepulauan Seribu
regency last year.

However, the auditor refused to go into further detail because
the finding had not yet been reported to the Corruption
Eradication Commission (KPK), which recently arrested Mulyana.

Meanwhile, City Audit Agency (Bawasda) head Firman Hutajulu
admitted his agency had yet not audited any KPUDs in the capital.

Bawasda was waiting for the result of the BPK's audit first,
Firman said.

He said his office was not investigating the KPUDs because the
BPKP and the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) were already on the case.

"It is a matter of auditing ethics. If an auditing body has
conducted an investigation to certain agency, another body should
not do the same thing," he said.

According to Firman, Bawasda would only follow up the case if
it received an order from Governor Sutiyoso.

"Usually, Governor Sutiyoso gets copies of auditing reports.
If there is something wrong, the governor will order Bawasda to
follow up their (BPK and BPKP) findings," Firman said.

Meanwhile, Rois, who is a councilor of the Prosperous Justice
Party, criticized Bawasda, which, he said, did not actively
follow up any reports of irregularities from the public and other
agencies.

This was a clear case of the institution ignoring the reason
for its creation -- to audit the work of agencies under the city
administration that received public money, he said.

"We are disappointed with Bawasda because there have been no
concrete actions to probe alleged embezzlements in the city," he
said.