Nurdin approved Goro-Bulog deal

Nurdin approved Goro-Bulog deal

JAKARTA: A commissioner of retailing company PT Goro Batara
Sakti, Nurdin Halid, provided on Friday damaging evidence against
former deputy chairman of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog)
Ahmad Ruskandar with his confession that he signed the
cancellation document for a land swap deal between the two
institutions.

Attorney General's Office spokesman Barman Zahir told
reporters, after Nurdin's questioning as a witness in the alleged
scam, that Goro had to disburse Rp 5.7 billion in collateral as a
condition for the cancellation.

State prosecutors have found that Goro managed to secure only
Rp 1.1 billion for the abrogation of the deal.

Nurdin told state prosecutors during Friday's questioning that
Ruskandar disbursed Rp 4.6 billion from Bulog's account to bail
out the retail company "without prior commitment between the two
parties".

Goro canceled the land swap deal after the Association of
Provincial Cooperatives (Inkud), which was then chaired by
Nurdin, plus 23 provincial cooperative units, took a majority
stake in Goro at a price of Rp 90 billion in 1998.

Ruskandar has been named a suspect in the case. -- JP