'No food packing by Raudlatul Jannah'

'No food packing by Raudlatul Jannah'

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Two witnesses in a graft case in which Akbar Tandjung is a
suspect, denied on Friday that any temporary buildings were ever
set up at Cipinang Market from March 1999 to September 1999 as
was previously claimed by the Raudlatul Jannah Foundation, a
little known organization that Akbar claimed to have received Rp
40 billion from the State Logistics Agency (Bulog).

Nukman Supriadi, chief of Pisangan Timur subdistrict, and
Nasion Baktino, head of the Cipinang rice market, told
prosecutors on Friday they never saw any buildings allegedly used
to accommodate 12 tons of rice packed and distributed by
Raudlatul Jannah Foundation to those most affected by the
economic crisis in 1999.

"The witnesses revealed that there were no such activities for
the food distribution project organized by Raudlatul Jannah
Foundation at the Cipinang market," the Attorney General's Office
spokesman Muljohardjo told reporters on Friday.

Both Nukman and Nasion were questioned as witnesses in a Rp 40
billion financial scandal involving House Speaker Akbar Tandjung.

Also questioned on Thursday was former Bulog chief Rahardi
Ramelan, the main suspect in the financial scandal. He told
reporters on Friday that it was still unknown who proposed the
amount of Rp 40 billion for the social safety net project.

The statements Nukman and Nasion contradicted, were made
earlier by the Raudlatul Jannah Foundation and may force state
prosecutors go in another direction to find where the Rp 40
billion of state funds actually went.

Akbar is accused of taking Rp 40 billion from Bulog in 1999.
Akbar, who served as minister/state secretary under the
administration of former president B.J. Habibie, claimed that the
money was used to provide food for the poor in five provinces in
Java and that the food distribution was handled by the Raudlatul
Jannah Foundation.

But, investigations by the Attorney General's Office showed no
trace of food distribution in those provinces, prompting it to
declare Akbar, who is also the Golkar Party chairman, a suspect.

Meanwhile, the Attorney General's Office imposed a travel ban
on hotelier Sukamdani Sahid Gitosardjono, owner of the now
defunct Bank Dagang Industri, and the bank's director Adriansyah
Omar Maki, for allegedly misusing Rp 418 billion of Bank
Indonesia's liquidity support to the bank from 1997 to 1999.

The state prosecutors also imposed a one-year travel ban
starting last Tuesday on Tabrani Ismail, former director of
management at the state's oil and gas company Pertamina, for
involvement in the marking up of the Exxon-Balongan project.