Witness testifies Goro land deal violates law

Witness testifies Goro land deal violates law

JAKARTA (JP): An employee of the Ministry of Finance testified
at the South Jakarta District Court on Monday that the land
exchange agreement between the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) and
wholesale firm PT Goro Batara Sakti was illegal.

Sukarno, the ministry's former deputy head in charge of
financial affairs, said that the exchange deal violated the
ministerial decree which stipulates that exchanging state land
assets had to be conducted through an open tender.

"The land exchange in the Goro case was not held through a
tender since Goro was directly appointed by former president
Soeharto as Bulog's partner in the agreement," said Sukarno, who
testified against the defendant -- Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra,
the youngest son of Soeharto.

Tommy was indicted for his involvement in a Rp 95.4 billion
(US$10.9 million) corruption scandal linked to the exchange of
Bulog's 50-hectare plot of land in the Kelapa Gading warehousing
complex in North Jakarta.

Tommy and Bulog's former chief Beddu Amang signed the
agreement in 1995 which required Goro to provide a 150-hectare
plot of land in the Marunda area, Bekasi, in exchange for the
Kelapa Gading land.

Prosecutor Fachmi said in his indictment that the agreement
caused losses to the state because Goro did not pay rental fees
of Rp 23 billion for eight hectares of Bulog's land and another
Rp 9.4 billion for seven warehouses used by the wholesale firm.

Goro, in which Tommy held shares, also demolished Bulog's
seven other warehouses on the site, causing further losses of Rp
7 billion, he said.

Sukarno said on Monday that Bulog did not report the rental
fees of the warehouses to the Ministry of Finance even though it
should have been approved first by the ministry.

He also said demolition of the seven warehouses as state
properties did not gain approval from the ministry.

However, Sukarno could not decide whether the agreement had
caused state losses or not.

"It should be judged by the Development Finance Comptroller
(BPKP) or the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK)," he said.

Fachmi was apparently satisfied with Sukarno's testimony since
all the six witnesses from the agency who testified earlier said
that the agreement caused no losses.

"We will see more witnesses in the next sessions. Most of the
witnesses testifying earlier were from Bulog so they said there
were no losses in the agreement," Fachmi said.

In earlier sessions, the witnesses, including Ruskandar, M.
Noor, and Sutopo from Bulog revoked earlier statements in their
dossiers which stated that the agreement caused losses to the
agency.

Bulog's new chief Rahardi Ramelan also repeatedly said that
the agreement caused no losses to the agency.

Tommy was indicted along with Goro's former president Ricardo
Gelael and Beddu under Article 1 (a) of Corruption Law No.
3/1971. The article carries a maximum punishment of life in
prison and/or 20 years imprisonment and a Rp 30 million fine.

Beddu was cleared of charges as the court said the indictment
was unclear, inaccurate and incomplete. (jun)