Police to act on Semarang Corruption Watch's report

Police to act on Semarang Corruption Watch's report

Haryoso, The Jakarta Post, Semarang

Central Java Police have vowed to investigate a report of an
alleged fraud involving Rp 67 billion from the province's
Villagers Cooperative Unit (Puskud) as revealed by the Semarang
Corruption Watch (SCW).

Adj. Sr. Comr. Ramly EA, spokesman for the Central Jakarta
Police, said in Semarang on Wednesday that the director of the
cooperative, Achmad Wahyudi, had yet to respond to the police
summons for questioning.

Ramly did not reveal if Wahyudi would be questioned as a
witness or a suspect. He said, however, that the police would
probably arrest the suspects without issuing a second summons if
the police had sufficient evidence.

Coordinator of the Semarang Corruption Watch Subyakto said Rp
49 billion was believed to have been swindled from clove farmers'
fees collected between 1992 and 1998.

"We don't care if the SCW reports are true or not. But the
police are now compiling evidence from reliable sources," said
Ramly.

Meanwhile, Subyakto said that the alleged swindle had been
reported to the Central Java Prosecutor's Office, the Attorney
General's Office in Jakarta and other concerned institutions,
including the police and governor.

"We urge the Attorney General's Office to instruct the Central
Java Prosecutor's Office to investigate the alleged swindle soon.
We also want the police to be more proactive."

Subyakto said the officials of the cooperative had deposited
the money into their bank accounts to gain interest before
transferring the funds to the cooperative.

The money belongs to the farmers of all cooperatives at the
village level in the province.

Subyakto also said that the officials of the cooperative had
once distributed bad checks to many cooperatives in villages.