Suspect gets deadline to return stolen funds

Suspect gets deadline to return stolen funds

JAKARTA (JP): East Jakarta Mayor Sudarsono has set a deadline
for SU, an employee of the mayoralty education office who
allegedly embezzled Rp 153 million funds which was earmarked for
paying overtime to public primary school teachers, to return the
stolen money.

"I have talked to him personally and asked that the money be
returned this month at the latest," said Sudarsono, adding that
as of Saturday he had not received a report from SU's boss as to
whether the suspect has repaid the money. SU is now reportedly
living abroad to pursue his doctoral degree.

As part of an administrative sanction, SU was demoted from his
position as a treasurer last April, putting him in a non-
managerial position.

The alleged fraud was discovered last April when a team from
the mayoralty inspectorate office observed irregularities
in the financial report of the treasury section of the education
office over the payment of overtime fees for teachers of public
elementary schools.

Earlier made public, some teachers of public elementary
schools complained to the mayoralty administration that they had
not received their honor kelebihan jam mengajar (KJM) or extra
fees given to teachers who teach above their assigned teaching
hours.

For practical and administrative affairs reasons, KJM is paid
by the education office to the recipients every six months.

"KJM is set at Rp 1,000 for every additional working hour and
cannot be more than three hours (per week) for each teacher due
to the working hours permitted by the government for elementary
school teachers is 28 hours a week maximum ," said Silalahi, a
section head of finance at the East Jakarta education office.

City councilors have also expressed their concern over the
unnecessary delay in the payment of KJM for public elementary
school teachers in East Jakarta, saying that the education office
should care for the welfare of teachers.

Meanwhile Terbit reported that SU has been absent from work
for months because "he went abroad to pursue a doctoral degree."
(arf)