State Secretariat caught in graft probe
Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The interdepartmental anticorruption team has found indications of widespread corruption at the State Secretariat, a crime that may affect some powerful and influential people.
Head of the team, Hendarman Supandji, said on Monday that investigators had started a preliminary probe into the case and had asked the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) to audit the State Secretariat.
"I can't give you further details right now since we are waiting for the audit results from the BPK. The results will be available in the middle of August," said Hendarman, who is also deputy attorney general for special crimes.
He said that the investigators had so far questioned 20 people from the State Secretariat along with some private companies. He declined to reveal any names.
The State Secretariat helps manage the daily office affairs of the President, and decides on when a bill proposed by the government can be submitted to the House of Representatives for deliberation.
The ministers in charge of the State Secretariat are often people very close to the president they must work with.
The special antigraft team was set up by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to handle high-profile corruption cases, particularly focused on cleaning up the graft within key state institutions over the next two years. The team was created in support of the government's newly launched campaign to curb out- of-control corruption in this country.
The team has already revealed indications of major corruption at the Ministry of Religious Affairs as well as state-owned insurance firm PT Jamsostek, although no officials have been put on trial as yet.
Separately, Hendarman also announced that the team would hand over its report on an investigation into alleged graft at state telecommunications firm PT Telkom.
"We don't have many prosecutors working on this team, and since the amount of state losses in these cases (at Telkom) is not great enough, then we should focus on the big fish instead," Hendarman said.
The Rp 12-billion (US$1.2 million) graft case will be handed over to the provincial prosecutors since the alleged corruption occurred in different parts of the country, including West Java and Jakarta.
"We have only completed about 40 percent of the probe and we found out that the amount was too small compared to other graft cases at government institutions. People involved in this case also do not have high positions with Telkom," Hendarman explained.
He has, however, assigned his team to focus on a larger graft case within the state telephone and telecommunications firm.
"The other (graft) case is still within PT Telkom, but I can't disclose the details because we're still conducting the preliminary investigation," Hendarman said.