Police promise to find lost Kamra salaries
JAKARTA (JP): The city police said on Friday they are determined to thoroughly investigate the disappearance of hundreds of millions of rupiah in allowances intended for members of the People's Security (Kamra) civilian force.
"We're exploring all possibilities to find the missing funds," city police chief Maj. Gen. Noegroho Djajoesman said.
He said during a parade of the 12,000 Kamra members at the Senayan indoor stadium that he had only just heard about the problem. The force is to be deployed to safeguard security in the upcoming general election.
When Noegroho announced that each Kamra member is entitled to receive a transportation allowance of Rp 45,000 (US$5.60) after completing the 12-day military training course, they spontaneously booed him, yelling: "Bohong (It's a lie)."
Most Kamra members said they only received Rp 10,000 after they completed the training course, conducted at 14 military training centers across the capital.
The apparently stunned Noegroho urged the crowd to calm down, saying that as they were now part of the police force, they should be frank with him about any problems to enable the police to help.
"You're part of us now... don't hold any grudges against us, talk to us," he told the packed stadium, which has a capacity of 10,000 people.
He said the police were not in charge of disbursing the allowance money during the training period.
The fund was still administered by the Ministry of Defense and Security, which should have sent it to the Jakarta Military Command, Noegroho said, declining to explain further.
"We'll check where the money belonging to the Kamra members has gone," he assured reporters.
The 14 training centers included the command's main regimental headquarters in Condet, East Jakarta; the health training center in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta; and the traffic police training center in Serpong, Tangerang.
"I only signed a receipt for Rp 10,000 and was told to wait as the remainder would be given later in the form of sports shoes. But up to now, we haven't received anything," Hasanudin from Cimanggis in East Jakarta said.
Friday's parade was intended to check the readiness of the Kamra force to help safeguard security ahead of the general election. It was held after a two-day strike of the militia members in North Jakarta and Tangerang on Wednesday and Thursday due to delays in the payment of their monthly salaries.
Each of the members was owed Rp 200,000 per month with meal allowance of Rp 2,500 and transportation fees of Rp 1,000 per day.
During the parade, Noegroho also pledged to recheck the deployment of the Kamra members as many of them were reportedly posted randomly throughout the capital.
"If a Kamra member from Tanjung Priok (in North Jakarta) is stationed in South Jakarta, how much money has he to spend to travel there everyday from his house?" Noegroho said. (emf)