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.