Find Article by Date
Sat, 28 Feb 2004

JP/Police to summon officials over councillor's alleged graft

Police to summon officials over councillor's alleged graft

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta Police will summon officials from the Jakarta Public Works Agency as witnesses in a Rp 1.3 billion (US$154,762) alleged graft case involving city councillor Maringan Pangaribuan of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) in January.

"We had received the reports earlier this month but we must check if it is really a graft case. We will question the agency officials," the city police chief Insp. Gen. Makbul Padmanagara told reporters on Friday.

Asked when the police would summon agency officials, Makbul only replied, "Later".

The graft allegation was reported to the police by Auction and Development Watch (PLP) two weeks ago and several times since then.

"We have reported the case several times but the police have not made any dossier on the case. I think the police are not taking it seriously," said PLP chairman Salmon Ordinal.

He said that some police officers had come to his office, saying that they would investigate the case but needed to ask permission from the governor as it involved a city councillor.

Salmon claimed his organization had a copy of a bank transfer for Rp 1.3 billion from Bachruddin/DPU DKI (Jakarta Public Works Agency) to Maringan's account in Permata Bank.

He said Maringan received the money as a fee for acting as a middleman in three river dredging projects conducted by the agency late last year. The projects were conducted to prevent the annual floods. Floods hit the capital earlier this month, claiming six lives and forcing more than 13,000 people to flee their homes.

"Maringan received Rp 1.3 billion as his fee. The amount is 10 percent from the project value after Rp 1 billion in tax is deducted," he said.

Salmon said this practice violated the Presidential Decree No. 18/2000 on procurement of goods and services for government agencies. The decree stipulates that government projects worth over Rp 50 million must be tendered publicly by placing advertisements in the media.