Municipality told to trace the stolen money

JAKARTA (JP): City councilors urged the municipality yesterday to trace and collect Rp 5.23 billion (US$871,333) of the city's money that was stolen by former East Jakarta Mayoralty officials, who have agreed to return the money.

"Actually the matter was fully investigated by city's inspectorate office (Itwilprop) two years ago and the guilty parties are obliged to pay the money back. But until now, they have still not yet paid anything back to the city," Lukman Mokoginta, head of Indonesian Democratic Party faction, said.

The theft at the East Jakarta Mayoralty was uncovered three years ago when five of its officials were found guilty by Itwilprop of stealing Rp 5.23 billion.

The five officials were respectively, MS, former East Jakarta Mayor (1988/1993) and four of his staff: Sg, Md, Sl and MH.

Of the Rp 5.23 billion, Rp 1.5 billion was taken by MS, Rp 2.5 billion by Sg, Rp 608 million by Md, Rp 310 million by Sl, and Rp 310 million by MH.

Former governor Surjadi Soedirdja said at the time the corruption was discovered that the most important thing was to secure the city's money. After that the guilty parties would be punished by law.

But the municipality seems to be acting too slowly in the handling of this case, Lukman said.

"The case has been abandoned for too long and the guilty parties have already been shifted to other posts. I don't understand why the city does not collect the money as soon as possible. It is a disgrace... and this kind of action must be stopped," he said.

Head of city's administrative manpower bureau Ma'mun Amin said that four of the five officials had been "exiled" to the city's regional secretary's office, the other official died last year.

"Even though one of them has died, we won't stop tracking the city's money" he said.

"Two of the four are about to be moved to the city's health ministry office. It is up to the governor to decide what to do with them," Ma'mun said.

Separately, the head of the city's inspectorate office, Djoko Brontosurjono, admitted that his office had completed its the investigation into the matter.

"I have completed the investigation and returned the results to each of the units where the guilty officials were posted," he said.

Djoko said he had submitted a report on the investigation's findings to Governor Sutiyoso and was now waiting for further action from the governor.

"It's up to the governor to decide whether to take this matter to court or to simply settle it within the municipality."

Amarullah Asbah, head of Commission C for financial affairs, said that according to the city's cashier none of the five officials had paid back a single rupiah.

"I strongly urge the municipality to collect its money. It is the city's money, why has it waited for such a long time?" he asked.

He said the money could be used to support the city's budget.

"The city is in a jam now because of the monetary crisis. A contribution from an "unexpected" source would be very helpful.

"Corruption is too common. So if the city manages to collect all the money, we would have enough to continue the city's development programs," he said.

Both Lukman and Amarullah thought that it would be a good idea to also report the case to the Ministry of Home Affairs, which is responsible for civil officials. (edt)