Local bank may be guilty of altering haj list
Local bank may be guilty of altering haj list
JAKARTA (JP): The government revealed yesterday that it had discovered several cases of manipulation, including one of data alteration by a state-owned bank, in relation to the lucrative business of sending haj pilgrims to Mecca.
Minister of Religious Affairs Tarmizi Taher said the authorities would investigate the state-owned bank which allegedly altered haj payment data in order to get its customers out of the pilgrimage waiting list and onto the list of those definitely bound for Mecca for the Moslem ritual.
"We deplore this bank for manipulating the payment date information of hundreds of its customers," Tarmizi said yesterday.
He did not name the bank but said it had intentionally altered its records of the dates of the customers' haj fee payments so that their payments appeared to have been made prior to the official deadline of Feb. 6.
The state-owned banks authorized to receive haj fees are Bank Negara Indonesia, Bank Rakyat Indonesia, Bank Exim, Bank Dagang Negara, and Bank Bumi Daya.
Some 36,000 prospective pilgrims may not be able to go to Mecca this year because the Saudi Arabian government has set the quota for Indonesian pilgrims at 195,000, whereas some 231,000 Indonesians have registered.
The would-be pilgrims on the waiting list have started to become anxious and may be tempted to seek (non-official) ways make the trip to Mecca, the Antara news agency reported.
The government has repeatedly warned prospective haj pilgrims against trying to travel on an ordinary green Indonesian passport, instead of on the brown passport issued especially for the annual government-organized pilgrimage trip.
On Monday, the government dispatched the secretary general of the ministry, Zarkowi Soejoeti, to Riyadh on another mission seeking a higher quota to accommodate all or more of the would be haj pilgrims.
Tarmizi himself returned empty handed from the first attempt to negotiate a higher quota, but he said he was still hopeful that something would turn up before the beginning of the pilgrimage on April 3.
Earlier, when the number of people registering exceeded the previous year's quota, the ministry decided that those who paid the fee in full between Feb. 6-15 were, automatically, put on the waiting list.
The bank in question devised ways to get hundreds of its customers off the waiting list and onto the confirmed list, according to Tarmizi. "The bank did not stop to think that such manipulation would affect the chances of other prospective pilgrims to go."
Tarmizi said his office had also discovered other forms of manipulation, including "haj fee collection".
The ministry found that some people had collected payment from prospective pilgrims but failed to deposit it promptly and, instead, used it as business capital.
"When the number of people registering for the haj exceeded the quota and the government changed the deadline, these people naturally panicked because they hadn't yet deposited the money," Tarmizi said.
While deploring the incidents of manipulation, Tarmizi said he saw a positive side of the matter. "Flaws in the sending of haj pilgrims have been exposed for everyone to see," he said.
Tarmizi said that intending pilgrims who had paid the haj fee in full between Feb. 3 and Feb. 15 would be given priority in the event that Zarkowi's mission succeeds.
"Let's hope that some of the 36,000 people on the waiting list can finally go to Mecca," he said.
"The would-be pilgrims should continue to pray for the success of the government in negotiating for a higher quota," he said. "And they should be patient if the mission fails and they can't go on the pilgrimage this year."
Legislators have called on the government to give the prospective pilgrims on the waiting list first priority next year.
The local offices of the ministry have been flooded with inquiries from eager pilgrims demanding to know their precise status and when their flights will depart. (swe)