Rahardi claims innocence in Bulog land swap scam

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Former State Logistics Agency (Bulog) chief Rahardi Ramelan admitted on Monday that the controversial Rp 54.6 billion disbursement of Bulog nonbudgetary funds exceeded the Rp 50 billion previously requested by then president B.J. Habibie.

"I used the other Rp 4.6 billion to finance the cancellation of a land-swap deal between my agency and PT Goro Batara Sakti, which was owned by Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra," Rahardi said after being questioned by investigators at the Attorney General's Office.

"But as you know, when the deal was concluded, I was still in the post," Rahardi said without elaborating. He just insisted, "I didn't do anything wrong with the funds."

Rahardi made the statements in connection with the investigation of the alleged misuse of the Rp 54.6 billion, a case that has implicated Akbar Tandjung, speaker of the House of Representatives.

Akbar, who is also chairman of the Golkar Party, is accused of misusing Rp 40 billion of the funds from Bulog for Golkar's campaign activities when he was minister/state secretary under Habibie in 1999.

The Attorney General's Office has declared Achmad Ruskandar, Bulog's former deputy chief of finance as a suspect for allegedly misusing the Rp 4.6 billion.

Rahardi, who is a suspect in the case, denied the accusation that he had worked together with Akbar to appoint a contractor to handle food distribution for the poor using the funds in 1999.

"I never knew the Raudlatul Jannah Islamic Foundation. You should ask Pak Haryono if he says that the authority to appoint the contractor was vested in me and Pak Akbar," he said, referring to former coordinating minister of social welfare and poverty eradication Haryono Suyono.

"The only authority I had was to hand over the funds to the minister/state secretary," Rahardi said.

Rahardi, who was also a former minister of industry and trade, further said that Akbar was the official in charge of coordinating with the relevant ministries, excluding Rahardi's ministry.

Haryono denied earlier that he recommended the foundation to Akbar, underlining that he could only engage in coordination and had no power to make decisions or policies.

Haryono had identified Akbar and Rahardi as the officials who were authorized to appoint the contractor.

Meanwhile, Habibie's lawyer Yan Djuanda Saputra said that the Attorney General's Office's team of investigators would leave for Germany on Saturday to directly question Habibie over the case.

Attorney General M.A. Rachman had said earlier that only Habibie's statements could be used to make Akbar a suspect.