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