Mayor implicated in graft

Mayor implicated in graft

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

After three sessions of questioning, the Attorney General's
Office said on Friday it was close to naming East Jakarta mayor
Koesnan A. Halim a suspect in a toll road scam.

Office spokesman Kemas Yahya Rahman said as the head of the
committee for payment of compensation for residents whose land
was affected by the eight-kilometer Cikunir toll road project,
Koesnan was held responsible for unpaid compensation amounting to
Rp 74 billion (US$8 million).

"The mayor surely would know the payment process and why the
land owners have not received the compensation," said Kemas.

He said the state had paid the compensation fund for 400
hectares of land in Ceger, Bambu Apus and Taman Mini Indonesia
Indah areas in East Jakarta which was acquired for the road which
links Taman Mini and Cikunir, Bekasi.

The residents have claimed they did not receive compensation
although the project was completed recently.

"The payment committee didn't give the money directly to the
land owners. Instead, they paid the money through a middleman,
who claimed to represent the land owners. We are suspicious the
committee was in cahoots with the broker," said Kemas.

He refused to identify the middleman, but said he had been
named a suspect.

According to the law, compensation should be given only to
people who can produce land ownership documents.

Previously, state prosecutors had declared four officials of
the state toll road operator PT Jasa Marga, including Daud
Jatmiko, deputy head of the payment committee, suspects.

The investigation began last year, with prosecutors having
questioned 30 witnesses.

"We found sufficient evidence during our investigation to
conclude that the four had taken some of the compensation money,"
said Kemas.

The toll road project cost the state Rp 370 billion.

Kemas said several other officials from the East Jakarta
municipal administration and the contractor may also be declared
suspects in the case.

The prosecutors are now questioning the head of East Jakarta
Land Agency as a witness.

Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) has blamed the rampant
corruption in the toll road projects for the increase in toll
fees.

An ICW inquiry found that billions of rupiah in state funds in
21 toll road construction projects in Jakarta and West Java had
been misused. It said the state had lost at least Rp 12.5 billion
in the construction of Jakarta-Tangerang toll road from 1996 to
1997, while the Cawang-Cibitung toll road construction had caused
Rp 57.9 billion in state losses in 1998.