Rahardi fails to meet AGO's fouth summons

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.