Pakpahan denies graft charges

JAKARTA: Labor leader Muchtar Pakpahan denied on Wednesday allegations that he had misused Rp 1.2 billion (US$ 114,176) of state insurance company PT Jamsostek's funds allocated for the construction of a training center of the Indonesian Prosperity Trade Union (SBSI), which he leads.

The South Jakarta prosecutor's office declared on Dec. 24 Pakpahan a suspect for using the funds for other purposes without the consent of members of the SBSI cooperative (Kopag SBSI), the cooperative's other directors and PT Jamsostek.

Pakpahan said the funds had been used to pay back loans from SBSI, the Social Democratic Labor Party, the cooperative's publishing house and the cooperative itself. Kopag SBSI had to use its members' money to finance the construction of the training center, which had already commenced, as the funds from PT Jamsostek were not available yet.

Kopag SBSI had requested funds from PT Jamsostek since June 2001, but received them only on Nov. 29, 2001, when the center's construction was nearly finished, Pakpahan said.

The center was inaugurated on Jan. 11, 2002, at a total cost of Rp 3.5 billion (US$ 411,764). -- Antara