Suspect named in haj fund scam

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A senior official at the Ministry of Religious Affairs was declared a suspect on Wednesday in a corruption case involving Rp 684 billion (US$72 million) in haj pilgrimage funds.

The suspect has been identified as Taufiq Kamil, the ministry's director-general of Islamic guidance and haj management. He was being grilled for hours on Wednesday, said head of the inter-departmental corruption eradication team Hendarman Supandji.

However, Hendarman said his team had not yet decided whether to detain Taufiq, who is currently a non-active official.

"We will wait for more results to come out of the investigation to determine whether we should detain him or not," he said.

To prevent the suspect from fleeing the country, Taufiq has already been given a travel ban, added Hendarman who is also the deputy attorney general for special crimes.

Taufiq was largely responsible for the management of the tens of millions of dollars in haj funds, which should have been saved in just one account instead of several accounts unrelated to pilgrimage affairs.

On Tuesday, the National Police decided to freeze the ministry's accounts totaling Rp 684 billion after an audit by the Development Finance Controller (BPKP) revealed a series of irregularities.

National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Zainuri Lubis said on Wednesday that the irregularities in the fund management were revealed after investigators found 22 separate bank accounts with the haj money, and each of those was being used for items not accounted for properly.

Some of the money was used in at least five items in the ministry's budget, most of which were unrelated to the haj pilgrimage, he said.

The budget items were being used for such things as salary bonuses, housing compensation and management funds for ministry officials, in addition to an interest-bearing haj trust fund.

None of these were connected to programs aimed at benefiting haj pilgrims, but merely being used for the benefit and enrichment of the ministry's officials.

According to Law No. 17/1999, unused money collected from pilgrims must be kept in one bank account and the funds must be managed for the pilgrims' benefit.

Starting in 2003, the auditors found that the funds were split into separate accounts and managed without public transparency, creating suspicions of possible corruption.

"We have also questioned several ministry officials as witnesses in this case, especially people who are in charge of managing these funds," Zainuri said.

When asked whether the Minister of Religious Affairs Maftuh Basyuni -- who was appointed in October 2004 -- was involved in corruption, Zainuri said the minister may have not known about the fund management procedures, but declined to elaborate further.

Zainuri did say however, that the police were going to summon Maftuh's predecessor, Said Agil Hussein Al-Munawar, for questioning as a witness. "The point is that all relevant officials, including former ministers, will be summoned."

Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation in the world, sends around 200,000 pilgrims each year to Saudi Arabia. Each pilgrim is required to pay the ministry up to Rp 24 million, over 17 percent more than Malaysian pilgrims are charged by their government.

The government controls well over Rp 5 trillion each year from the pilgrimage.

Unlike many other Muslim countries where individuals can arrange their own trips, Indonesian pilgrims are strictly required to go through the government bureaucracy as the haj management has been centralized at the religious affairs ministry for decades -- yet another legacy of the Soeharto/New Order regime.