PPP to grill Tosari over investment in PT QSAR

PPP to grill Tosari over investment in PT QSAR

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Muslim-based United Development Party (PPP) is planning to
grill its leader Tosari Wijaya over the party's alleged Rp 5
billion (US$5.6 million) investment in the now bankrupt profit-
sharing agribusiness PT Qurnia Subur Alam Raya (QSAR).

Lukman Hakim Saifuddin, head of the party's education and
training department, said on Sunday that party leaders would also
establish whether or not Tosari, in his capacity as chairman of
party's fund raising team, violated PPP's internal rules.

"There are two important points party leaders want Pak Tosari
to clarify: The first is whether or not he holds the authority to
take all necessary moves to raise funds for the party, and second
whether or not he had secured the party's approval to invest the
funds in QSAR," Lukman told reporters on the sidelines of the
party's two-day meeting to discuss their stance over proposed
political bills currently being deliberated at the House of
Representatives (DPR).

Lukman, however, refused to disclose a time for his
clarification session, only that it would be soon.

"We'll do it as soon as possible," he said.

Tosari, who is also a deputy speaker of the House, admitted
that he invested some Rp 5 billion of PPP funds into QSAR and
another Rp 1.5 billion from certain cooperatives under PPP.

He made his first public appearance on Saturday since news on
QSAR's bankruptcy broke out several weeks ago.

Tosari, who looked emotional, disclosed to the press that the
issue of PPP's investment in QSAR had been internally settled.

"Did you read the papers? Did you watch televisions? So why do
you ask me about the (QSAR) matter?. There's no longer a problem
with the party's funds. It's all been settled. We (the PPP) just
wished to earn profits by investing our money in QSAR," Tosari
said.

Asked if he had the authority to use party funds, Tosari
replied: "That's not your business. I have made a clarification
to the party's chairman (Vice President Hamzah Haz) and he agreed
with me," he said without elaborating.

Tosari further said that he would repay the funds to the
party, saying: "It's all my responsibility."

Tosari was reportedly one of QSAR's honorary board members and
has maintained a good relationship with QSAR's president director
Ramli Araby, who is currently being detained at the Sukabumi
Police Precinct along with six other company directors. Which
means if he QSAR would have been profitable he would have been
entitled to profit-sharing personally, even though he had not
"invested" his money the party's.

Ramli and other company directors have been declared as main
suspects in the financial scandal on charges that they had
misused some Rp 500 billion raised from 6,800 private investors.

Last Thursday, West Java police investigators questioned
Tosari's wife Matsusoh about her role in QSAR. Matsusoh was
reportedly the director of a QSAR subsidiary in Purbolinggo, East
Java.

The questioning was to follow up Ramli's testimony that QSAR
channeled some Rp 750 million to its subsidiary, PT Bromo Lestari
Alam Raya (BAR), in which Matsusoh was a director.

Meanwhile, Muhammad Mirdasy, secretary of the PPP East Java
chapter, told The Jakarta Post that Tosari had once instructed
him to invest some Rp 250 million in party funds in the QSAR
experiment.

"But since chairman Hafid Ma'soem and I, failed to get
guarantees that the company was profitable, we refused to risk it
with the party's money," Mirdasy said.