Police promise to find lost Kamra salaries

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)