Sutiyoso defends capital as one of many corrupt cities
JAKARTA (JP): Governor Sutiyoso said on Wednesday corruption "was a commonplace activity in the country" and that the Ministry of Home Affairs' revelation of Jakarta's substantial involvement in Rp 2.6 trillion of graft cases reported nationwide was not surprising.
"Corruption doesn't just occur in the capital. It's logical if Jakarta ranked first in the irregularities, because it has a greater number of projects compared to other provinces," Sutiyoso said.
The governor, an active three-star military general, said he was ready to go to the ministry if he was summoned for questioning in relation to the cases.
"But as of today (Wednesday) I had not received a summons," he said after receiving a US$200,000 donation from the government of Kuwait through its embassy here. The gift is earmarked for the renovation of the Istiqlal Grand Mosque, which was partly damaged by a bomb blast in April.
Later in the afternoon, acting head of the city inspectorate office Syarifudin Mahfud hastily called a media conference, in which he suggested the embezzlement of state funds by city administration employees could be larger than disclosed by the ministry.
"What was revealed were only the findings of the ministry's inspectorate general office.
"There are two more institutions, the city inspectorate office and the development finance controller, which supervise the city finances. If the two reveal their findings as well, the total amount could be much, much higher," he said.
Syarifudin, however, refused to disclose figures traced by his office.
He did not explain why he aired the allegations against city administration officials only after the ministry's public disclosure of the graft.
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Home Affairs announced the government suffered corruption losses of Rp 2.6 trillion nationwide.
The ministry disclosed that Jakarta topped the list with Rp 115 billion, followed by East Java with Rp 95 billion, and West Java third with Rp 38 billion.
Spatial agency
Of 15 city agencies and offices inspected by the ministry's inspectorate general since last year, Syarifudin said the biggest corruption cases in the administration -- totaling some Rp 110 billion -- occurred at the city spatial agency.
"Another Rp 5 billion was found at another 14 agencies and offices," he said, referring to the central government's account.
He said the corruption-created losses were described as state losses and an obligation to store money (in the form of a levy) to the central government.
"In the spatial agency case, for example, some Rp 58 billion was in the form of a state loss and Rp 57 billion was an obligation to the government."
Head of the city's spatial agency Ahmadin Ahmad strongly denied Syarifudin's allegation that officials at his office were involved in embezzlement of state funds.
"It is not a corruption case, but back debts of land usage levies from several construction companies," he said.
Ahmadin said 12 construction companies still had Rp 41 billion owing for land usage levies -- categorized as a financial obligation to the central government -- to the agency.
He said the companies concerned included the Jakarta Country Club, PT Pelangi Hardawana and PT Tunggal Alam Raya.
He said a controversial debt owed by the Jakarta Country Club, which manages the Mulia Senayan Hotel in South Jakarta, totaled Rp 15.3 billion.
"But so far they have only paid Rp 250 million," Ahmadin said.
PT Pelangi Hardawana had a Rp 5.3 billion debt and PT Tunggal Alam Raya could not fulfill an obligation to pay a Rp 2.4 billion levy. The latter company had ceased its projects due to the crippling economic crisis, he said.
Ahmadin said he did not have any data that supported allegations that state losses amounting to Rp 58 billion originated from his office.(ind)