Vendors rally at Bogor council

BOGOR: Dozens of sidewalk vendors near Kebon Kembang and Anyar markets here staged a rally at the town council on Wednesday to protest the Rp 96 million fraud related to a beautification project for their shops.

They said that they had paid between Rp 1 million and Rp 7.5 million each for the installment of a shelter for them.

The money, they said, was collected by a person named Butet.

Part of the money, the stranger promised, "would be given to the council members and some officials as a bribe," said Ade, one of the vendors, in recalling the transaction.

In the end, the Bogor administration did not approve the project because the site had been designated a green area.

A councillor, Rizal Barnadi, said that he knew nothing about the case; a market official, Dody Afandi, meanwhile, denied having ever received any of the money. --JP