Sutiyoso accused of legalizing bribery

Sutiyoso accused of legalizing bribery

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Undeterred by the filing of a police report against him for
defamation, chairman of the Jakarta Residents Forum (Fakta) Azas
Tigor has publicly repeated his allegation that Governor Sutiyoso
attempted to bribe councillors.

Tigor accused Sutiyoso on Saturday of trying to bribe city
councillors by allocating Rp 17.8 billion (US$1.78 million) for
session fees during the deliberation of the governor's budget
speech.

"It could be considered legal bribery," said Tigor.

He said the allocation of Rp 17.8 billion for the councillors
could also be considered collusion between the administration and
the council to secure approval for the governor's budget speech,
which will be delivered on Wednesday.

He said the allocation of the Rp 17.8 billion from the 2002
city budget was approved by the city administration to make
paying the councillors legal.

"So it's more than the earlier reported sum of Rp 3 billion
allocated for councillors (so that they accept the budget
speech)," he added.

The Rp 17.8 billion is part of a Rp 88.3 billion budget for
the council this year (not last year as reported earlier).

Sutiyoso reported Tigor to the police last week for charging
that the city administration had allocated Rp 3 billion to bribe
councillors.

Sutiyoso was represented by the legal department of his
office, and did not personally appear at police headquarters.

Tigor has urged the public to demand that the council revises
the budget, especially on the fund for the councillors, saying
that any legal action would be useless.

Fakta, along with other non-governmental organizations grouped
under the Coalition for Budget Transparency (KOTA), such as the
Urban Poor Consortium and the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, sued
the city administration and the council last year for the lack of
transparency in the making and approval process of the 2001 city
budget.

But the Central Jakarta District Court turned down the suit.

The council had initially ask for Rp 102 billion for the 2002
budget, but after protests by the public, the amount was revised
to Rp 83.3 billion and was approved on Jan. 31.

The 85 city councillors, whose monthly salaries reach Rp 7
million each, earlier received other perks and benefits, such as
Hyundai sedans and foreign trip allowances.

Last year, the city budget allocated Rp 75.4 billion for
councillors.

The Ministry of Home Affairs' Director General for Regional
Autonomy Sudarsono revealed earlier that the budget for Jakarta
councillors was the highest in the country, reaching Rp 1 billion
per year.

Separately, city spokesman Muhayat said on Saturday that the
Rp 88.3 billion fund in the current budget was proposed and
approved by the councillors themselves.

"We could not reject the council's proposal. The authority to
revise the budget is the council's," Muhayat said.

He admitted, however, that the approval of the Rp 88.3 billion
in the budget may prompt allegations that the administration
tried to bribe the councillors.