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.