Public 'needs to know who used the Bulog funds'
Public 'needs to know who used the Bulog funds'
Yogita Tahilramani
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
The return of funds to state investigators by a suspect in the
scam involving Golkar Party chairman and former minister/state
secretary Akbar Tandjung should enable the Attorney General's
Office to unravel the political connections of the case, a lawyer
said.
Noted attorney Trimedya Panjaitan said on Sunday that state
prosecutors had an "open door" to investigate if the money had
been used to finance the campaigns of any of the 48 political
parties contesting the 1999 general election, including Golkar.
"The return of the money proves that it had never been used
for the purchase of food assistance for the poor. So where did
the money go? Which party had used it -- and which individuals
benefited from it?" Trimedya asked The Jakarta Post.
He was alluding to the revelation by the Attorney General's
Office that Winfried Simatupang, appointed by a charity
foundation to disburse Rp 40 billion in State Logistics Agency
(Bulog) funds for a food-for-the-poor program in 1999, had
returned Rp 32.5 billion to state prosecutors last week.
House of Representatives speaker Akbar was a cabinet minister
handpicked by then-president B.J. Habibie to conduct the program.
He worked through the little-known Raudatul Jannah Foundation,
led by Dadang Sukandar. Dadang, in turn, named Winfried as the
contractor.
Akbar, Dadang and Winfried, who all are now in the custody of
the Attorney General's Office, are known to have Golkar
connections.
In the previous Bulog scandal, Trimedya was one of the lawyers
for former Bulog deputy chief Sapuan, who was jailed for ordering
the disbursement of Rp 35 billion in Bulog funds in 2000.
That money had been intended for public aid, but was misused.
"In the first Bulog scandal, linked to former president
Abdurrahman Wahid, lawyers asked prosecutors to discover where
the money went. Even as the money was being returned to the
authorities, prosecutors never bothered to find out who had
cashed the checks," Trimedya said.
"The public never knew which political parties were involved
in the scam," he said.
Executive director of the Human Rights and Legal Aid
Association (PBHI) Hendardi echoed Trimedya's view, suggesting
that prosecutors had shifted the focus of the investigation to
who the intended beneficiaries of the funds were.
"The return of the funds should lead prosecutors to the
parties which held on to the money all this time. I'm afraid the
move to return the money will only allow the prosecutors to
lighten the charges," Hendardi said.
The Attorney General's Office had earlier insisted that the
return of the funds would not alter the case against suspects
Winfried, Akbar or Dadang.
The dossiers on all three would be ready by the end of the
month, officials said.
In the first Bulog scandal, money returned to investigators by
a businesswoman linked to the Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama
(NU), Siti Farikha, and Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle
legislator Suko Sudarso led police to close further investigation
into their alleged involvement in the scam.
With the return of the funds, Hendardi said, state
investigators could question Winfried as to how he had been able
to return the Rp 32.5 billion, and who had initially used the
money.
Echoing Hendardi's views, prosecutor Arnold Angkouw, who had
managed to send timber tycoon and former president Soeharto's
golfing buddy, Mohammad "Bob" Hasan, to prison for corruption,
said on Sunday that the return of the funds would prove a
significant development in court.
"This is about the corruption of state funds, the loss of
state funds ... when most of the funds that were lost are
returned, it would be considered by judges a positive mitigating
factor for the suspect," Arnold said.
"It could most likely help secure a lighter conviction; the
return of the funds proves that the money was never used for its
intended purpose -- which was food aid for the poor," he added.
"Returning the money doesn't erase the crime."