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.