Police take over probe into graft cases

The Jakarta Post, Semarang/Bandung/Samarinda/Banda Aceh

Unimpressed with poor and sluggish performance of regional police offices in probing graft cases, the Central Java provincial police have taken over investigations into corruption allegations involving local councillors and former regents.

Central Java police chief Insp. Gen. Chaerul Rasjid said on Monday that they decided to intervene after learning that police offices in four regencies Karanganyar, Brebes, Purworejo and Salatiga had failed to investigate graft cases.

"The local regency police have failed to handle the cases properly and have succumbed to outside interference," Chaerul said.

He also complained about the lackluster performance of regional police.

A case in point was the Karanganyar regency police that had ran an investigation into former councillors who were alleged to have swindled Rp 16 billion from the regency budget. In the course of legal proceedings the local prosecutors office had rejected dossiers from the police force a total of eleven times.

Separately in Bandung, West Java, a local court is expected to hold its first trial of Kurdi Moekri, a member of the House of Representatives (DPR) from the United Development Party (PPP) for corruption charges, on Thursday.

Kurdi was the main suspect in the alleged misuse of Rp 33.4 billion in funds taken from the Province's 2000-2002 budget.

In Samarinda, East Kalimantan, the provincial prosecutor's office on Monday named two former council members for their alleged involvement in the misuse of Rp 85 billion from the province's 1999-2004 budget.

In Banda Aceh, Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, the provincial prosecutor's office set up a team on Monday consisting of 10 prosecutors to delve into a number of corruption cases that were being pressed by local non-governmental organizations (NGOs).