LKMD boss sacked for corruption

JAKARTA (JP): Karang Anyar subdistrict head Erwanto fired the chairman of the local village resilience board (LKMD) on Friday for misuse of the social safety net fund.

According to Erwanto, the local LKMD boss, Sutarmo, confessed to loaning 10 individuals a total of Rp 10 million (US$1,250) of the Rp 764 million disbursed to his area in Central Jakarta as part of the fund.

They included eight members of his staff, a member of the village development board and a member of the local village security and order board.

"He loaned about Rp 1 million to each person during the past two months. The money was returned to the LKMD treasurer on Thursday," Erwanto said on the sidelines of a neighborhood meeting in Karang Anyar.

As reported on Friday, at least 18 residents of Karang Anyar lodged complaints with city police about the manipulation of data and the abuse of the social safety net fund in the subdistrict.

The residents, mostly small-scale businesspeople, said local officials in their respective neighborhoods had asked them to sign for safety net funds they never received.

Businesswoman Siti Aminah, for example, said her name and signature was used by Sutarmo and his associates on a false list of people who received the fund.

The list reportedly recorded 10 members of Siti Aminah's business group as having received a total of Rp 18 million from the social safety net fund.

Erwanto said on Friday that the woman who actually received the Rp 18 million was Sutarmo's wife, whose name is also Siti Aminah.

"Sutarmo's wife is being investigated," he said. (ylt)