Six city officials identified in graft to tune of Rp 14.55b
JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta Prosecutor's Office revealed on Thursday that six city officials had been implicated in corrupt practices between 1994 and 1999, costing the city more than Rp 14.55 billion (about US$ 1.9 million) in losses.
"We have investigated the cases and will send the dossiers to the courts for prosecution," head of Jakarta Prosecutor's Office Lukman Bachmid said in a hearing with city councilors.
The cases involve, among others, Daryanto, a former official at the City Public Office who allegedly received a bribe of Rp 305 million for not closing a nightspot that ignored government- permitted opening hours.
Dodo Yosida and Ario Statica Indra, former officials of the City Development Planning Board, who allegedly received Rp 106 million from businessman F.X. Sony Susmana for granting a project to him. The project turned out to be fictitious.
A third case involves Irnandi, former chairman of the city's civil servants association (Yayasan Korpri), who allegedly marked up the value of a 13.5-hectare plot of land from Rp 1,000 per square meter to Rp 5,000 per square meter.
It was later found out that the land did not have proper documents. The case caused state losses of Rp 1.5 billion.
The final case involves Tamrin Jamain and Mulyono, who allegedly bought a fictitious 150-hectare plot of land worth Rp 12.645 billion.
Lukman also said that his office had terminated the investigation into six other corruption cases due to lack of evidence.
They include the circumstances surrounding the Rp 16 billion maintenance budget at the City Supplies Office, the Rp 9 billion procurement of plots for the Ciangir garbage dump at the City Sanitation Agency and an alleged Rp 2.6 billion income tax fraud at city-owned market operator PD Pasar Jaya.
Most councilors were dissatisfied with the results of the investigation results, saying that the office had not worked properly to probe the corruption cases.
"There were 2,947 corruption cases as of last year. How can the office only reveal so few of them?" said Ugiek Soegihardjo from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) faction.
Djafar Badjeber of the United Development Party (PPP) faction said the office had not investigated old cases. He was referring to the land acquisition for projects in east and west Ancol in North Jakarta.
"The office must also investigate corruption at the Jakarta International Trade Fair (JITF) and the Jakarta Industrial Estate Pulo Gadung (JIEP)," he added.
Djafar said the city administration had a majority share in JITF before it moved its exhibition ground from the National Monument (Monas) park to the site of the former Kemayoran airport.
"Not only did the city administration lose a significant percentage of shares in JITF, but it also has to carry more than 1.6 trillion worth of debt," he said.
Meanwhile, councilor Posman Siahaan of the Justice and Unity Party (PKP) accused several prosecutors of protecting the suspects in return for receiving money.
Lukman, however, dismissed the allegations that the investigation had been carried out at a slow pace.
"How do you know that the prosecutors worked slowly in our investigations?" he asked.
"There was no intervention from other institutions in our investigation," he said. (nvn)