Sutiyoso named in 'graft case'

Sutiyoso named in 'graft case'

JAKARTA (JP): A witness in a Rp 857 million (US$98,500) graft
case, which allegedly involved former top officials of the city-
owned Bank DKI said on Thursday that the bank's monitoring team,
which is chaired by Governor Sutiyoso, had sanctioned Rp 100
million in cash withdrawals.

"The bank's monitoring team had no problems with sanctioning
the withdrawals," Bank DKI financial controller Pandangan
Panjaitan told the hearing at the Central Jakarta District Court,
presided over by Judge Rasadi Salmun.

The cash withdrawals were allegedly sanctioned by the bank's
former president Maman Soelasman and the bank's former director
of general affairs Djunaedy Albaghdady -- both defendants in the
case -- to pay for city council and city hall meetings on the
ratification of a bylaw, which regulated the conversion of the
bank's status from a city-owned bank to a private one.

The witness said the city administration had the right to
sanction the withdrawals, as did the monitoring team, Maman and
Djunaedy.

"The withdrawals were sanctioned in a shareholder's meeting,"
he said.

When asked to name the members of the monitoring team,
Pandangan said that "Governor (Sutiyoso)" headed the team, while
members included the deputy governor for economic and financial
affairs Fauzie Alvi Yasin, deputy governor for development
affairs Budihardjo Sukmadi and assistant to the city secretary
for administration and development affairs Ongky Sukasah.

When asked where the money actually went, Pandangan answered
that he was told by his superiors the money had gone to city
councillors. But, he said he did not know of any hard evidence
that could prove this.

Upon hearing Pandangan's statement, Maman's defense lawyer
Glora Tarigan brought out a document stating that head of
Commission C for financial affairs Amarullah Asbah had received
cash withdrawals.

The document was signed by both Pandangan and Amarullah.

Upon seeing the evidence, Pandangan looked confused and
remained silent.

Rasaldi immediately fired questions at Pandangan which left
him looking anxious and dejected, including: "Would you not call
this bribery? Are councillors not paid salaries for their jobs?
Why did you not ask your superiors what the payments were for?"

Pandangan simply responded that he could only do what his
superiors ordered him to.

Financial controller of the city council secretariat, Sarwo
Edhi, separately told the hearing that some Rp 146 million in
"incentive money" was given to councillors for a certain city
council meeting.

When asked where the money came from, Sarwo said that it had
come from the city council budget.

Sarwo kept quiet for at least a minute when asked by Rasaldi
whether he knew of councillors who had received money outside of
the council budget.

"Hmm... yes.. if they did so, it did not happen through
myself. I can only say that every person is different from the
other and I can't keep track of them all," Sarwo answered.

Upon hearing this, Glora asked Sarwo whether city councillors
who failed to attend a council meeting, for instance, also
received payment allocated for councillors at the meeting.

Sarwo said: "Yes, they did."

Earlier, prosecutor Untung Sitorang said defendants Maman and
Djunaedy had violated the 1999 Corruption Law.

"Both defendants in their capacities as directors of the bank,
have violated the 1999 Corruption Law," Untung told an initial
hearing.

Article 3 of Law No. 31/1999 stipulates that a person guilty
of either profiting himself or causing benefit to accrue to
another person or a corporation through the abuse of his position
as a result of which losses are suffered by the state, shall be
subject to a minimum of one year and a maximum of 20 years
imprisonment. (ylt)