Rahardi fails to meet AGO's fouth summons

JAKARTA (JP): Former minister of trade and industry/former chairman of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) Rahardi Ramelan, who is a suspect in a 1998 corruption case at the Agency, on Friday failed to meet a fourth summons from the Attorney General's Office, a report said.

Spokesman for the Attorney General's Office Moeljohardjo told reporters that the forth summons had been delivered to one of Rahardi's lawyers Yan Juanda Saputra.

"But there has been no official explanation from the suspect nor his lawyers over his failure to appear," Moeljohardjo said as quoted by Antara.

He said the Attorney General's Office would, therefore, seek the help of Interpol in bring Rahardi home for questioning.

Moeljohardjo said investigators had documents showing that a disbursement of Rp 54 billion (US$6 million) of Bulog non- budgetary funds had not been accounted for.

The Attorney General's Office declared Rahardi a suspect in the case after witnesses and documents had revealed that the then Bulog chairman issued a memorandum to his then deputy for finance in 1998, instructing the disbursement of the Rp 54 billion fund.

But, Moeljohardjo said that investigators had yet to obtain any information on the use of the Bulog fund, which was supposed to have been used to stabilize the prices of basic commodities and construct facilities for the Agency.

Separately, another lawyer for the suspect, O.C. Kaligis, said that he had sent a letter to the Attorney General's Office asking it to delay the questioning until the beginning of next month.

"I sent the letter to the Attorney General's Office yesterday (Thursday)," Kaligis said as quoted by Indosiar television on Friday.

Moeljohardjo, however, denied Kaligis's claim, saying that his office had not received the letter.