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)