Sat, 21 Aug 2004

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.