Officials berated over car sales
Officials berated over car sales
Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post, Makassar, South Sulawesi
Non-government organizations (NGOs) in the South Sulawesi capital
of Makassar have accused the Tanah Toraja regency administration
on Wednesday of illegally selling 30 official cars.
Moreover, the vehicles were sold below their market value,
they said.
The allegations were made by five NGOs, consisting of the
coalition of the Sulawesi Legislative Monitoring Committee
(Kopel), the Anti Corruption Committee (ACC), the Ujungpandang
Legal Aid Institute, the South Sulawesi branch of the Indonesian
Women's Empowerment and Legal Aid Institute (LBG L2i), and the
Tanah Toraja Parliament Watch.
They said most of the cars -- which were produced in the 1990s
-- were sold for Rp 1.5 million (US$176) each. Some were sold for
as little as Rp 625,000.
The most valuable car, according to the NGOs, was a 1997
Daihatsu jeep sold for Rp 18.5 million. It was worth more than Rp
50 million, they added.
The regency administration sold the 30 cars for a total of
only Rp 90 million. The cars included Toyota minibuses and
pickups, Daihatsu and Suzuki jeeps and Daihatsu Espas, the NGOs
elaborated.
Activist Syamsuddin Alimsyah said the sales were not in
compliance with existing procedures on the sale of state assets.
"The Tanah Toraja administration should have obtained
permission from the council to sell the state assets and they
should have been sold through auction," Syamsuddin said.
The NGOs said the buyers were all local officials who had been
driving the cars in an official capacity prior to the sales.
The permit to sell the cars was issued by Tana Toraja
administration secretary A. Palino Popang on June 9, 2003.
"The results of an investigation indicates possible
manipulation in the sales of the assets. The prices the cars were
sold for did not make sense," Syamsuddin said.
The NGOs urged the South Sulawesi Prosecutor's Office and the
South Sulawesi Police to launch an investigation.
Another activist Abraham Samad said that the NGOs' findings
were sufficient preliminary evidence for the authorities to
question those responsible for the sales.
"Our findings have indicated manipulation and the abuse of
power in the sales," he said.
Separately, Tana Toraja administration spokesman Marten
Kuranded rejected the NGOs' findings, saying that his office
conducted the sales legally.
"It's not true. The official cars were sold after we secured
approval from the Tana Toraja administration and with the
involvement of the State Auction Agency," he said.
Marten argued that the cars were eligible to be sold as most
of them had been used by the administration for more than five
years.
The local council had discussed the sales, including the car
prices, he added.