Suspended auditor receives Rp 140m from KPU

Suspended auditor receives Rp 140m from KPU

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A suspended state auditor confessed to having received a total of
Rp 140 million in cash from the General Elections Commission
(KPU) to "fix" the findings of an audit on the poll body.

Djapiten Nainggolan, who has been suspended by the Supreme
Audit Agency (BPK) for his alleged involvement in the high-
profile graft case, said he received the first two payments
totaling Rp 36 million as a "transportation fee" through two
other auditors, Chaidar and Onegawati, in January and February
last year. The last payment of Rp 104 million was given by KPU
deputy treasurer M. Dentjik in October last year.

"I received the money as a gratuity from the KPU," Djapiten
said in his testimony during the trial of KPU treasurer Hamdani
Amin in the Anticorruption Court here on Wednesday.

Djapiten also admitted that the payments were connected to the
BPK's audit of the commission's outlays.

The gratuities were handed over during the final stages of the
audit, he said, but all the money was paid over to the Corruption
Eradication Commission (KPK) following the arrest of KPU member
Mulyana W. Kusumah after he was caught red-handed bribing a BPK
auditor, Khairiansyah Salman. Mulyana was convicted and sentenced
to 31 months in jail.

Mulyana's arrest prompted the widening of the investigation
into corruption at the KPU that implicated a number of the
organization's members and staff, as well as those from the BPK
and finance ministry, and House of Representatives lawmakers.
Some of them have been convicted of or are currently on trial for
graft.

Djapiten, the third witness to testify in the Hamdani case,
has been suspended along with two other BPK auditors, Chaidar and
M. Priyono. Khairiansyah quit the BPK last July while action
against BPK deputy chairman Abdullah Zaini is still pending. BPK
chairman Anwar Nasution said he would not take any action against
Zaini as the case occurred when the latter was a House lawmaker.

Zaini received Rp 200 million as a gift for his son's marriage
when he was the deputy chairman of the House budget committee. He
returned the money after the high-profile case surfaced.

He also testified to the court that 13 other BPK auditors and
staff members received money from the KPU amounting to between Rp
1.5 million and Rp 107 million, including Chaidar, Priyono,
Onegawati, Helmi Rubain, Deddy, Nur, Iswardani, Yanti Fitri,
Sulung, Kerot and Suharto.

Anwar said recently that apart from the three auditors who had
been suspended indefinitely, other auditors who accepted KPU
money had been demoted.

Djapiten said that only Latief, another member of the audit
team, refused money, Rp 1.5 million in all, from the KPU. This
money was later taken up jointly by the team.

Another witness, Sussongko Suhardjo, revealed that KPU
Chairman Nazaruddin Sjamsuddin asked him to testify against
former KPU secretary-general Safder Yussac, who was responsible
for the procurement of election materials.

Acting KPU secretary-general Sussongko said that following
Mulyana's arrest, the situation in the KPU offices became so
chaotic that Nazaruddin decided to work from home.

"He (Nazaruddin) convinced me that the Mulyana case would not
implicate more people and said that he would lobby the BPK
chairman not to reveal irregularities that implicated KPU
members," he said.

Sussongko was sentenced to three years in jail for his role in
the collection of kickbacks from companies that won supply
contracts from the KPU.