SEAG Consortium can be sued: Legal aid body

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)