Officials misused funds at Bank DKI, source claims

JAKARTA (JP): City administration run Bank DKI has suffered losses of at least hundreds of million of rupiah allegedly through embezzlement by the bank's top executives, a source at the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office said on Thursday.

The source, who asked not to be named, showed copies of what he claimed were internal payment notices (SPMUs) issued by the bank. They appeared to reveal the withdrawal of more than Rp 288 million (US$36,000) at the request and approval of the bank's president Maman Soelasman, director of general affairs Djunaedy Albaghdady or his senior staff members.

"These are only a few examples of the documents. The total amount is much, much higher," the source added.

According to the documents dated from 1997 to May 1999, payment of the funds -- ranging from Rp 3 million to 40 million per order -- was to be made to the bank's "general affairs bureau".

Most recipients of the funds only provided their signatures; in a few instances, the names were written under the signatures, including Yana, Mulyadi and Agus.

A reliable source told The Jakarta Post on Thursday night: "These three guys are staff of the bank's general affairs bureau. They were ordered by Maman to receive the funds and later handed them over to Maman without any proper reports."

Despite the Post's repeated attempts to reach Maman and Djunaedhy over the past three days, the men were unavailable.

"Bapak is still in a board of directors meeting," their secretaries said.

An employee even informed reporters that any questions to the two could be sent by facsimile.

"The answers will be faxed back to you," the employee, who did not give his name, said before hurriedly hanging up.

In the SPMUs, allocation of the funds was explained by several reasons, mostly for meetings and operational activities of the Jakarta administration and the City Council.

As reported earlier, the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office is looking into corruption said to amount to nearly Rp 2 billion, which allegedly involves Maman and Djunaedy.

Nine employees of the bank, called in to testify in the probe, handed over accounting ledgers and used the withdrawal forms to the office as evidence that Maman and Djunaedy withdrew up to about Rp 1 billion each for personal expenses.

Among those questioned were Carolina Nursaid, head of the bank's secretariat and general affairs bureau; Yenita Elza, head of the bank's secretariat and general affairs division; and Patra Kadri from the bank's general affairs section.

When asked to comment on the content of the SPMUs on Thursday, City Council speaker Edy Waluyo strongly denied that his institution or colleagues received or used any funds as stated in the documents.

He insisted that their meetings were funded from the city budget and the bank's executives had no right to issue the order and approvals.

"The council has never, I repeat, never used money as stated in these documents for any of our meetings. Maman and Djunaedy are liars if they really said these things, that the council had received and used up Bank DKI's money for our meetings," Edy told reporters.

"I've already sent a letter to the office dated May 21 on the matter. The council always uses money allocated for our meetings in the city budget and the amount is more than enough."

No city administration executives, including Governor Sutiyoso, were available to comment on the matter. (ylt)