Prosecutors told to shift focus to govt officials

Prosecutors told to shift focus to govt officials

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta

Investigations around the country into malfeasance in the
spending of local government budgets have raised many eyebrows
for their apparent targeting of local council members, while
leaving state officeholders and officials untouched.

Indonesian Corruption Watch coordinator Teten Masduki
questioned why prosecutors were singling out the councillors but
had failed to find evidence implicating local government
officials in budget malfeasance.

"We don't have enough evidence yet to support our suspicions
that many local government officials are embezzling state funds.
However, we have found indications in several regions that local
government executives are engaged in such malfeasance," said
Teten.

He suspected that a lack of willingness on the part of
prosecutors was the main reason they were not acting against
local government officials.

The prosecutors, Teten said, would find a host of
irregularities if they were to look into budget spending by local
government agencies in the country's provinces, regencies,
municipalities and districts.

Legal expert Luhut M. Pangaribuan was of the view that
political motives were behind the decision of the Attorney
General's Office to single out local councillors.

"The anticorruption drive may be seasonal. When prosecutors
have an interest in probing a case, they will try hard. But when
they see no benefit for themselves in the case, they will stop
the investigation. They should take action whenever there are
indications of malfeasance," said Luhut.

He said it was inconceivable that local government officials
could maintain they knew nothing about the misuse of state funds
by councillors.

Attorney General M.A. Rahman issued an order in April for
prosecutors across the country to focus on budget malfeasance by
local legislature members.

State prosecutors are currently handling around 300 corruption
cases involving local councillors in 30 provinces.

Many of the councillors have been accused of misusing state
funds by allocating funding to fictitious projects, while many
others are alleged to have accepted bribes during municipal or
gubernatorial elections, the Attorney General's Office said.

State losses resulting from local government corruption could
reach trillions of rupiah as each of the cases involved between
Rp 1 billion (US$111,000) and Rp 10 billion.

Over the last three months, hundreds of councillors have
either been named as suspects or convicted in graft cases. The
most spectacular example was the conviction on May 17 of 43 out
of 55 members of the West Sumatra provincial legislature for
embezzling Rp 6.4 billion from the 2002 provincial budget on May
17. The Padang District Court handed out sentences of up to two
years and three months in jail in this case.

Earlier this month, 22 members of the Southeast Sulawesi
provincial council were named suspects in a Rp 1.9 billion
provincial budget scandal, while 18 councillors in West Nusa
Tenggara were charged with misappropriating Rp 24.2 billion from
the provincial budget.

Attorney General's Office spokesman Kemas Yahya Rahman
dismissed allegations that the antigraft drive was part of an
effort to improve President Megawati Soekarnoputri's image. He
said that the Padang District Court's verdict had encouraged
prosecutors in other areas to bring councillors to court.

"We had never any intention of trying to improve our image
just because the Attorney General's term will soon come to an end
or because of the presidential election. We have been probing
local councillors as there is ample evidence, and we have
received many public complaints regarding their involvement in
graft. We will turn to local government officials later," said
Kemas.