SEAG Consortium can be sued: Legal aid body

JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta Legal Aid Institute director, Apong Herlina, said yesterday that the 19th SEA Games consortium, which was in charge of raising public funds to finance the Games, can be sued for breaking Civil Code article 1365.

"The consortium violated the instructions of the Minister of Social Services by appointing a third party to raise funds from the public. The consortium also didn't get approval from the House of Representatives and they have yet to give full-audited reports to the minister, the house and the public," she said.

"These actions are against the law because they also disrespect people's subjective rights," she added.

Article 1365 states: "Anyone who contravenes existing laws by inflicting losses upon another will be obliged to compensate the aggrieved party for the damage."

The consortium, chaired by President Soeharto's son Bambang Trihatmodjo, said that it suffered a Rp 68.1 billion (US$7.2 million) loss, raising Rp 87.9 billion against outgoing costs of Rp 156 billion.

Out of the Rp 87.9 billion income, third party PT Angkasa Rona Graha (ARG) only submitted Rp 18.75 billion from three months of sticker sales from May to July 1997.

Apong said the consortium violated a ministerial instruction by appointing PT ARG as its distributor. The government banned the consortium from subcontracting sticker sales to a third party.

But a letter from the consortium's executive director Bambang Yoga Soegama dated Oct. 13, 1997, appointed a PT ARG official to distribute the stickers to state-owned companies PT PLN, PT Telkom, the Ministry of Transportation and provincial revenue agencies from July 1, 1997 to April 30, 1998 although the ministerial instruction said that fund raising must end on Dec. 31, 1997.

Apong said that the fund raising system was also wrong because the public could not refuse to pay for the "voluntary donation."

Many people, especially those paying electricity, telephone and cellular phone bills, did not receive stickers although they paid for them.

"The public can question them and ask for clarification from the consortium about the amount which has been raised and where the money went," she said.

Apong said that if this is proven to be corruption, the case can be changed from breaking of the civil law to the criminal law.

"If this is a crime, the police must investigate the case," she said.

Apong also urged the minister to ask for the consortium's responsibility.

The institute will represent the Indonesian Consumers' Foundation, which has received complaints from the public, to sue the consortium.

The foundation has been investigating PT PLN, PT Telkom, the Ministry of Transportation, provincial revenue agencies and PT ARG. (yan)