World Bank refutes corruption allegation
World Bank refutes corruption allegation
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A consultant with the World Bank in Central Sulawesi rejected on
Tuesday a statement that a bank-funded project in Donggala
regency in 2002 was marred by corruption.
"The statement is not true. Every project in the World Bank is
supervised tightly," said Yuliana, a consultant employed by the
World Bank in Donggala regency, a few dozen kilometers northwest
of Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi.
Yuliana was commenting on the statement by Iskandar Sukirman,
the chief of the Donggala prosecutor's office, who was quoted by
Antara news agency on Sunday as saying that a project manager in
the World Bank program named ZC had been declared a suspect in a
Rp 700 million (US$82,350) graft investigation.
Yuliana said that she and other World Bank consultants had
checked out the statement and discovered that ZC was not the
manager of a World Bank program but rather a government official
in the Donggala administration's Community Empowerment Board.
Yuliana said that ZC was also a project manager in the
Subdistrict Development Funds scheme, a program run by the
Donggala administration to help alleviate poverty in the regency.
"The suspect was in charge of the various projects. He
(allegedly) embezzled money from a project funded out of the
Donggala regency budget. The project has nothing to do with World
Bank projects," she said.
Similar comments were voiced by Lily, an officer employed by
the World Bank's National Management Consultant for District
Development Programs (PPK) in Jakarta.
She said that the World Bank had nothing to do with the
programs headed by ZC.
"Probably, the money involved was provided by other
institutions -- certainly not the World Bank," she told Antara.
Separately, an investigation by Antara in Donggala
administration indicates that ZC has embezzled some Rp 700
million out of a total of Rp 3 billion in Subdistrict Development
Funds provided by the Donggala administration -- not by the World
Bank.
"He should have channeled funds to all subdistricts in
Donggala that were targeted by the program, but he failed to do
so. He reported to the Donggala regent and other Donggala
government officials that he had paid out all the money, but when
we checked with local people, many of them said that they had yet
to receive the funds," said a source in the Donggala
administration.
The investigation by the Donggala prosecutor's office has
produced indications that ZC embezzled Rp 700 million out of a
total of Rp 3 billion.
The source said that there could well be other suspects in the
case, but added that this would ultimately be up to the Donggala
prosecutor's office.
Separately, Iskandar Sukirman acknowledged that he had made a
mistake. He confirmed that the money allegedly embezzled by
suspect ZC was not provided by the World Bank, but by the
Donggala administration.
"He embezzled the money from a poverty alleviation project run
by the Donggala administration -- not by the World Bank," he told
Antara.
He added that his office was preparing charges in the case,
and once these were finalized, ZC would be brought to trial.
The World Bank disbursed a grant in 2002 worth Rp 6.75 billion
to finance district development programs (PPK) in seven districts
in Donggala regency.
The money was used to provide soft loans to small and medium
enterprises, funding for infrastructural development and
scholarships for school dropouts. The program benefited 46,
mostly poor, subdistricts in the regency.
The program has been underway since 1999.