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)