NGOs provide more evidence of graft against Muna officials

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A group of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) provided the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Monday with further evidence to use in its report on alleged corruption within the Muna administration in Southeast Sulawesi.

The NGOs, including Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) and the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (FITRA), said that they found more documents to back up the report on the illegal auctioning of teakwood.

"We earlier discovered alleged state losses of only Rp 7 billion (US$777,000) caused by teakwood sales by the Muna administration. Now, we have secured more documents revealing that the state actually suffered some Rp 11 billion in losses," said La Ode Udin, spokesman for the NGOs.

He accused the Muna administration of embezzling some of the money from auctions of illegally cut teakwood in 2002 and 2003.

Some local officials were tried at a district court in Southeast Sulawesi, but prosecutors failed to locate those most responsible for the scam.

During a court hearing on July 13, the Muna administration was accused of involvement in illegal logging in the regency in a bid to benefit from teakwood auctions.

According to the NGOs' report, officials in the Muna forestry office allegedly ordered local residents to cut down teak trees in a 4,000-hectare forest.

The felled trees, which were left in the forest by the residents, were then seized by the forestry office and declared illegal, the report claimed.

"The winners of bidding at the teak auction were particular companies, some of which came from Java," it said.

According to a ministerial decree, it is the responsibility of a regency administration to auction logs seized from illegal activities in its area. The prosecutor must be consulted prior to the auction.

Data from the NGOs shows that the volume of illegally felled teak trees in Muna increased from 4.6 million cubic meters in 2002 to 7.6 million cubic meters last year.

"We urge the KPK to supervise the prosecution of the case to ensure a fair trial. We also ask the commission to take over the investigation into the case if prosecutors fail to do their jobs properly," said Hidayatullah, another NGO activist.

Muna Regent Ridwan has denied the accusations, saying no state revenue was lost from the teakwood auctions.

There were attempts by individuals to undermine his administration, he said, adding that the allegations were politically motivated.