Payments extorted from civil servants

PEKANBARU: A number of officials at the Riau Religious Affairs Office (KUA) are under suspicion for demanding "fees" from newly appointed civil servants who recently passed selection tests.

The fees were allegedly demanded when the new civil servants were arranging for their official letters of appointment at the Pekanbaru and Indragiri Hulu offices of the KUA.

The new civil servants had to pay Rp 300,000 in Pekanbaru, while a larger amount of Rp 1 million was reportedly demanded by the Indragiri Hulu office.

"They said the money was for arranging their letters of appointment," a newly appointed civil servant at the Indragiri Hulu KUA, who declined to give his name, said on Tuesday.

Separately, head of the Riau Religious Affairs Office, Abdul Gaffar, said on Tuesday that he had heard about the matter and would look into it. --JP