N. Sumatra prosecutor's office under fire over rife corruption
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan
The North Sumatra legislative council lashed out at the provincial Prosecutor's Office on Tuesday for being both slow to act, and easily influenced in its efforts to fight against rampant corruption.
In their questions during a hearing between the legislature's six commissions and Chairman Harahap, chief of the Prosecutor's Office, 12 legislators threatened to order an internal review -- and possible reshuffle -- unless progress was made.
The allegations stemmed from investigations into large-scale corruption among provincial government officials.
"The legislative council is very disappointed with the office's performance in investigating the corruption," Efendi Tambunan, a member of the legislature's Commission VI on social and environmental affairs, said.
Tambunan added that, so far, the Prosecutor's Office has yet to investigate the alleged embezzlement of Rp 12 billion from relief funds intended for landslide victims in Dairi Regency last year.
"Our commission gave documented abuses of power on Oct. 3, 2001 to the high attorney office -- but so far, no investigation has been carried out," he said.
During the hearing, Tambunan handed over another copy of his commission report about the case to Chairuman.
Tambunan added that the Dairi regency developed housing compounds in areas which were not affected by the disasters, while the Salak and Kerajaan subdistricts, which were worst-hit by the disasters, have still to see any financial assistance from the local administration.
Hanif Ray, another member of the commission, asked Chairuman to investigate the former transmigration office over the alleged embezzlement of Rp 8.5 billion from several transmigration projects in Sibagindar, Dairi, last year.
The corruption was detected when the commission made a field tour to the housing project for Acehnese refugees in the regency last October.
"Several housing compounds and camps had not been developed, whereas the former transmigration office reported previously that housing compounds and camps were already inhabited," he said.
Chairuman said in his answers to the legislators' questions that his office had given priority to major cases in handling more than 130 corruption cases in the province.
"Trust in me, please, we shall investigate all the cases thoroughly. We are able to handle only several cases in months because of the personnel shortages," he said.
He cited the fact that his office has detained 12 officials and ex-officials in its investigation into more than 20 major corruption cases.
Meanwhile, a score of students and teachers held a demonstration in the front of the Prosecutor's Office, demanding that officials investigate the alleged mark-up of Rp 900 million in fees from the 2001 national academic examination for elementary and high schools in the province.
The demonstrators said that Muin Harahap, chief of the local education and culture office and Karsito, chairman of the organizing committee for the national academic examination, were allegedly involved in the corruption case.