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
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