Nasrul reported to police over slander

JAKARTA (JP): The executive board of the city's Indonesian Civil Servants Corps (Korpri) will report a former member to the police over defamation.

"Today I ordered our legal office to file a report against Nasrul Idrus with the police," Korpri's deputy chief Zainal Arifin announced on Wednesday.

He was referring to Nasrul's accusation that Korpri's current executives had spent Rp 4.3 billion (US$430,000) of funds received from the city administration since 1997 for "unclear and factious activities".

Nasrul formerly headed Korpri's social and political division.

Zainal denied the accusation, saying that Nasrul had filed the same report twice with the city inspectorate but the latter found it was baseless.

"Nasrul based his accusation on bitterness as he had lost his position at Korpri and was moved to the city's civil registration office, " Zainal said.

Separately, city assistant inspector Syahrul Effendy said that his office had audited Korpri's account based on Nasrul's report.

"We found irregularities that show Rp 58 million from a total of Rp 5.4 billion of city funds had been channeled to Korpri's coffer since 1997," Syahrul said.

He said the irregularities included the marked-up purchase of stationery and spending for a number of activities which were unaccounted for.

The money had been returned to the city's cash office though, according to Syahrul.

"Based on our recommendation, 11 Korpri executives, including Nasrul, were disciplined," Syahrul said.

According to him, the irregularities have not yet been reported to the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office, because the organization hoped to solve the matter internally.

He admitted that before the year 2000 the fund was used to support activities of the Golkar Party.

Earlier on Wednesday, Nasrul showed data signed by the organization's secretary, Rengsita A. Pandjaitan, which approved the disbursement of Rp 100 million for some party functions and another Rp 49 million for a meeting in Puncak, Bogor, last year.

"I'm ready to testify to the prosecutors if they want to investigate the case," he remarked.

Rensita denied the accusation, saying that the Rp 100 million was never spent. Korpri, he said, disbursed only Rp 20 million to pay for transportation allowances of employees of several institutions under its auspices.

He admitted the disbursement of Rp 49 million to finance a meeting to draft the organization's budget for 2001 in Bogor.

"Nasrul was invited but he did not come," Rengsita said. (jun)