Pasar Jaya employee held on graft
JAKARTA (JP): The police have detained an official of the municipal market authority, PD Pasar Jaya, who has allegedly embezzled Rp400 million (US$185,442) of the company's funds.
Atin Setiadi, 36, was arrested on Sunday in Saketi village, Pandeglang, West Java, six months after he went into hiding.
Lihardin Sipayung, the state-owned company's spokesman, said yesterday that Atin, a former official at the company's treasury section, was arrested by police at 11 p.m.
He added that the case is being processed by the prosecutor's office.
He told The Jakarta Post that the company will immediately file a charge against Atin.
The alleged embezzlement case was revealed early this year.
Earlier Lihardin said that Atin had acquired the sum through various schemes, including manipulating employees' pension funds, insurance premiums, and registration fees. He added that the alleged fraud had been going on for years.
It is also reported that Atin was responsible for PD Pasar Jaya's unpaid income taxes which should have be paid at the branch office of Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) on Jl. Cut Mutiah, Central Jakarta. He blocked the tax payment because he was able to make fake copies of their tax receipts. Atin allegedly managed to lead the company's treasurer into believing that the fake receipts were genuine. However, the fraud was detected when the receipts were submitted at the time of payment.
Prawoto S. Danoemihardjo, the assistant of the city secretary in charge of economy and development, partly blamed the fraud on lack of supervision.
Meanwhile, city councilors said they believed the embezzlement involved the company's high-ranking officials. The councilors argued that it was impossible for a low-ranking official like Atin to steal such huge sums from the company without the knowledge or cooperation from his superiors.
The embezzlement caused Rp3.4 billion (US$1.6 million) in losses to the municipal administration. The figure will likely to go higher once the company completed its investigation into the amount of money Atin had collected from the fake tax receipts.
A preliminary estimate put the figure to as much as Rp2 billion ($927,213) after the company found some fake receipts totaling more than Rp400 million.
Prior to the disclosure of Atin's case, the company had uncovered a Rp134 million ($62,123) fraud which occurred in August 1992, involving its treasurer identified as R.S.
The treasurer, who is now in police custody, reportedly committed the crime during his 1974-1984 term in office. (03)