More Jamsostek officials entangled in graft: Police

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Police are set to name new suspects in an alleged graft case involving state-owned insurance firm PT Jamsostek following the detention of the company's former investment director Andi Alamsyah.

Deputy chairman of the inter-departmental anti-corruption team Brig. Gen. Indarto, who is also the fraud squad chief at the National Police headquarters, said the new suspects would be revealed in the next coming few days.

"There will be more suspects as we have found enough evidence to charge them," Indarto said.

He would not say whether the new suspects would come from Jamsostek's board of directors or the management of companies where it made investments.

The case revolves around imprudent investments decided by the management of Jamsostek, which runs social security programs for workers in the country, which are alleged to have caused more than Rp 250 billion (US$26.3 million) in losses to the state.

Among the blunders were a Rp 100 billion (US$10.5 million) investment in bonds issued by the now defunct Bank Global, a Rp 49.2 billion investment in a local company identified by its initial as PT V, and another investment worth Rp 105.5 billion in another firm identified as PT SIP.

Indarto said the investigators expected to find more financial losses resulting from bad investments.

He said Andi was named a suspect because he was held responsible for the careless investments. The police found evidence that Andi as the investment director violated several regulations concerning investment.

"We discovered an analysis report from Jamsostek's investment research division saying that the state insurance firm should not invested in Bank Global but he (Andi) ignored it and made the investment," Indarto said.

According to Presidential Decree No. 28/1996 on Jamsostek investment, any investment worth over Rp 25 billion needed approval from the company's president director and finance director.

"We found that Andi failed to comply with the regulations and invested workers' money based on his own judgment," Indarto said.

Andi, who began serving his detention on Monday, will be charged with violating Anticorruption Law No. 31/1999 and will face a maximum penalty of life sentence if proven guilty.