Three ministries unveil graft totaling Rp 4 billion
JAKARTA (JP): The government announced on Thursday cases of corruption in three ministries involving nearly Rp 4 billion (US$597,000) of state funds.
However, with only one ongoing police investigation into the graft -- an inquiry focusing on an official from the Cooperatives and Small Enterprises office in Medan -- no other actions have been taken against the embezzlers.
The announcement followed last week's disclosure, in which results of the government's nationwide anticorruption drive were announced. They showed a Rp 7.21 trillion loss resulting from more than 3,000 graft cases.
State Minister of Agrarian Affairs/chairman of the National Land Agency (BPN) Hasan Basri Durin unveiled on Thursday 198 cases of corruption and other forms of malfeasance which cost the government Rp 2.95 billion. He said Rp 1.94 billion of the embezzled state funds embezzled had been recovered.
Investigations into corruption, collusion and nepotism at the ministry have led to revocation of 39 land titles for almost four million hectares.
One of the land titles belonged to PT Tri Polyta Indonesia owned by Sudwikatmono, a half brother of former president Soeharto, Hasan said.
He said 47 officials had been dismissed, 35 had their ranks demoted and 65 were disciplined in connection with the malfeasance. He failed, however, to disclose if any measures had been taken in regard to land titles owned by Soeharto and his family members.
Earlier this year, the land agency launched a nationwide inventory of land titles owned by the Soeharto family. The results have yet to be announced.
In another media briefing, Inspector General of the Ministry of Manpower Martono said an investigation team had found 1,385 cases of corruption between April 1998 and April this year. He refused to unveil the amount of state funds embezzled, but said the ministry had managed to recover Rp 428 million.
"No one has been brought to court in connection with the crimes, because the most important thing is that the state funds have been recovered," Martono said, adding that disciplinary action ranging from reprimands to dismissals had been imposed on 91 officials.
He said the ministry opted for internal settlement for cases of corruption, collusion and nepotism, in part on the advice of several district prosecutors.
The investigation team excluded an alleged misuse of obligatory workers' insurance funds invested at state-owned insurance company PT Jamsostek. Martono said the case had been taken over by the office of the State Minister of the Empowerment of State Enterprises.
Separately, Minister of Cooperatives and Small Enterprises Adi Sasono said incidents of corruption, collusion and nepotism in his office had, since 1998, cost the government Rp 482.92 million.
Announcing the results of an investigation into malfeasance practices in his ministry, Adi said the graft accounted for less than 0.2 percent of the Rp 292 billion allocated in the 1998/1999 state budget for the ministry.
"You're not likely to find corruption in trillions of rupiah if the ministry's budget is small."
He said the budget for the cooperative movement in Indonesia was the smallest in Southeast Asian countries.
Inspector General of the ministry Joko Sugiharto said Rp 134.25 million, or 28 percent of the embezzled funds, had been recovered.
He said the malfeasance included manipulation of traveling expenses and project expenditure markups.
He said at least one official in North Sumatra had been referred to the police, while 28 officials had been given administrative sanctions.
Director General of Financing and Savings and Loans Deswandhy Agusman said no government social safety net funds channeled by the ministry had been embezzled.
Deswandhy said the ministry received only Rp 68.56 million of such funds, all of which were directly channeled to intended recipients.
Adi was at the center of a controversy last month for alleging using social safety net funds to help the electoral campaigns of Golkar and the People's Sovereign Party (PDR).(01/02/05)