Three BAKN staff arrested for forging promotion papers

JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta Police have apprehended three employees of the Institute of State Personnel Administration (BAKN) for allegedly forging teachers' promotion documents, an officer said on Monday.

The city police chief of detectives, Col. Alex Bambang Riatmodjo, said it was believed the three suspects issued hundreds of false documents, mostly for junior high school teachers in Jakarta and several other cities in Kalimantan.

"The three have operated their activities since 1995, but we have yet to calculate losses incurred," Alex said.

Losses have been incurred by the government because it subsequently raised the teachers' salaries in line with their supposed promotions.

Alex identified the suspects as Marham and Bambang -- staffers in the administration department -- and Fadilla from an unidentified division who supplied the blank forms to be forged.

Marham, a resident of Karawaci in Tangerang, was arrested in his house on May 6, while Bambang and Fadilla were apprehended one day later when they were about to leave the BAKN office on Jl. Letjen Soetoyo in East Jakarta.

It is believed Marham is the key suspect who scouted around for teachers and negotiated the price for the false promotions.

Marham admitted to the police that he first falsified documents for teachers in state SMPN 12 junior high school in Kebayoran Baru in South Jakarta in 1995.

During preliminary questioning, Marham said he had issued about 350 documents, Alex said.

Bambang and Fadilla were accomplices in that they typed out and supplied the forms.

However, the three suspects declined to speak to reporters. Marham only said, "Don't ask me, I'm ashamed."

Police have reportedly urged the Ministry of Education and Culture to withdraw the promotion documents from teachers to help complete the investigation.

Meanwhile, the Tangerang Police arrested a man for alleged involvement in selling obsolete Brazilian money and confiscated 28 packs of the obsolete money.

Tangerang Police chief Lt. Col. Pudji Hartanto identified the suspect as 40-year-old Salaman. He said Salaman was arrested after the capture of Tjong T. Wei in a night raid for possessing three packs of the obsolete Brazilian money.

Tjong admitted obtaining the money from Salaman and said he was about to return the money to him as he found out that the money was worthless, Pudji said.

Salaman was arrested later in his house where the police found the 28 packs of the Brazilian money, which became obsolete in 1980.

The money was in denominations of 5,000 cruzados and 10,000 cruzados.

Salaman told the police the money had been bought from a man identified as Heru from Semarang, the capital of Central Java.

"The packs of 5,000 notes were bought for Rp 2.25 million and sold again for Rp 2.5 million, while the 10,000 cruzados notes were bought for Rp 700,000 and sold for Rp 1 million," Pudji quoted Salaman as saying.

The suspect said he did not know the whereabouts of Heru or his address as Heru visited him at his house and dropped the money there.

Salaman said he did not know the money was worthless.

He said the money was mainly intended for money collectors, who liked to buy old money, including old Indonesian bank notes which bore the picture of late president Sukarno.

"The profession (of selling old money) is very popular now, but I want to quit as it forces me to deal with the police," he said.

Pudji said Salaman face charges of violating Article No. 245 of the Criminal Code on trading in counterfeit money, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment. (emf/41)