Probe into JEC bribery stalls
Asip A. Hasani, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta
Progress in the much-demanded investigation into a bribery scandal over the Jogja Expo Center (JEC) project remains uncertain despite prosecutors obtaining the approval of the home minister to summon a local senior legislator as a suspect.
The Yogyakarta prosecutor's office had named in February Herman Abdurrahman, chairman of the United Development Party (PPP) faction in the provincial legislative council, as one of two suspects in the Rp 150 million scandal.
Last month, Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno approved the plan to question Herman, a move required by law to question local legislators implicated in crimes.
However, prosecutors were apparently reluctant to summon Herman as they had not set a date for his questioning.
Anti-corruption activists lashed out at the prosecutor's office for being too sluggish in the investigation.
"It's been two-and-a-half months since prosecutors began their investigation into the JEC case, but they haven't even questioned the suspect yet," said Teguh Purnomo, coordinator of a joint independent team investigating the scandal.
The team comprises lawyers from many legal aid organizations including a group from Gadjah Mada University.
It also is looking into a separate bribery scandal involving Rp 1 billion in last year's vice gubernatorial election in which the sultan of Paku Alaman Palace, Paku Alam IX, and his step brother Prince Anglingkusumo were the only candidates.
Local legislators have been accused of taking bribes from both Anglingkusumo and Paku Alam IX in the race, in which Paku Alam came up as the winner.
Teguh said there was no reason for prosecutors to delay the investigation into the two scandals as legal evidence has been "more than sufficient".
Spokesman for the Yogyakarta prosecutor's office Ranu Miharja vowed to summon Herman and another suspect Duljiman, director of Yogyakarta's state-run construction firm PT Adhi Karya, for questioning next week.
"We have succeeded in passing all the procedures to question Pak Herman now and we'll question him in the next few days after our team prepares all the technical matters," told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
He said his office had just received technical assistance from the Attorney General's Office to be able to grill the suspects.
Duljiman is charged with giving Herman a Rp 150 million bribe to ensure the council's political support for the last disbursement of Rp 9 billion in state funds for the JEC project.
The Rp 42.5 billion-project was financed by the Yogyakarta provincial administration and the central government.
Bowing to public pressure, Herman admitted in late February that he had received Rp 150 million from an unknown sender in his Bank Bali account on Jan. 4 and Jan. 9. He claimed to have sent the money back to the sender's account in Bank Mandiri on Jan. 15.
The finding by a PPP investigation team, however, showed that Herman had only returned the money on Feb. 15.
Acting head of the Yogyakarta prosecutor's office Edward Pasaribu told the Post on Monday that whether or not other legislators would be declared suspects would depend on the results of Herman's questioning.
"We will find out if Pak Herman distributed the money to his fellow legislators or not," he said.
Two legislators of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) and Golkar Party have revealed that a fellow legislator had given them envelopes in January containing Rp 5 million and Rp 10 million respectively.