Members of 29 legislatures quizzed over alleged graft
Members of 29 legislatures quizzed over alleged graft
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Corruption appears to be widespread in regional legislatures
here, with hundreds of councillors of 29 provincial, regental and
municipal councils being investigated, and some already found
guilty, a senior prosecutor disclosed on Thursday.
Sudhono Iswahyudi, the attorney general's deputy for special
crimes, said here that the councillors were convicted and being
investigated for various corruption crimes, with making
fictitious budget allocations the most common one.
"Many councillors make up budget allocations to enable them to
get additional money from the regional budget. Others are accused
of misusing state funds by allocating money for programs that
later turn out to be fictitious," said Sudhono, during a meeting
with representatives of the Association of Regional Legislative
Councils (Adeksi).
He cited a case in which several councillors from a certain
region had allocated money for a comparative study abroad.
"We investigated the case and discovered that they never made
that trip. Other councillors said they were going on a 10-day
trip but only stayed five days," said Sudhono.
Other councillors in another region, he said, applied for
insurance of Rp 20 million each, but they used the money for
housing instead of paying the premium.
Sudhono said the councillors frequently marked up the cost of
programs.
Cases of fictitious budget allocations are being investigated
in several regental and municipal councils in Central Java, West
Nusa Tenggara, Jambi, Central Kalimantan, West Java and West
Sumatra provinces.
Sudhono said other councillors were charged with vote-buying
during the mayoral or gubernatorial elections.
According to data from the AGO, money politics was found to
have occurred in several regions, including Natuna Island, Pati
in Riau, Central Java; Tasikmalaya in West Java, and in several
regencies of North Sumatra.
Indonesia has 32 provinces, and over 400 regencies and
municipalities.
Sudhono said state losses due to these corruption cases could
reach trillions of rupiah. "However, we are still investigating
the cases. When we are ready to take them to court, we can make a
more accurate estimation," he said.
Besides investigating the councillors, the prosecutors are
also investigating executives, such as mayors and regency heads
for their alleged involvement in corruption cases, said Sudono.
Corruption cases in regional legislatures have been headline
news for the last few months, with a corruption case in West
Sumatra provincial council being the most high-profile case.
Padang District Court in West Sumatra sentenced 43 of 55
provincial councillors to prison terms of up two years and three
months on May 17, for embezzling Rp 6.4 billion (US$680,851) of
the 2002 provincial budget.