Yogya councillors to face summons in corruption case
Yogya councillors to face summons in corruption case
Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta
The Yogyakarta provincial prosecutor's office announced over the
weekend it would proceed with the investigation into two of six
councillors at the provincial legislature who have been declared
suspects in a corruption case involving billions of rupiah.
Speaking to The Jakarta Post on Saturday, spokesman of the
prosecutor's office Ranu Mihardja said they had received a faxed
copy of a letter from the Minister of Home Affairs, who had
granted permission to investigate two deputies of the council
speaker, Totok Daryanto and Nur Achmad Affandi.
"We are waiting for the minister's original letter. Once we
have received it, we'll proceed with the investigation of the
two," Ranu said.
He said the office would not use the faxed copy to summon the
suspects, because a councillor had previously refused to meet a
summons issued on the basis of a fax from the minister.
While awaiting the original letter, the prosecutor's office is
to continue questioning all witnesses from the eight insurance
companies implicated in the case.
Ranu said his office was waiting for approval to question the
other three suspects, while the case against the final suspect, a
councillor from the Indonesian Military (TNI)/National Police
faction, had been handed over to the local military prosecutor's
office.
In March, the prosecutor's office named six councillors --
Totok, Nur Achmad, Herman Abdurrahman, M. Umar, Nuruddin Haniem
and Markhaban Fakih -- as suspects in a case of misused funds
from the provincial legislative council's budget.
A 15-member investigative team from the prosecutor's office
had started the probe into the alleged involvement of the
councillors in the corruption case, after receiving a report from
the Yogyakarta Corruption Watch (YCW) in September 2002.
Initially, the investigation was focused only on the misuse of
Rp 1.1 billion (US$134,425) of provincial budget, The funds were
used to cover the councillors' health insurance premium, which
allegedly violated Government Regulation No. 110/2000 on the
council budget.
As the investigation developed, however, it was revealed that
the fund allocated for the health insurance premium was taken
from the executive post, rather than the legislative post in the
provincial budget.
"We also discovered that the insurance fund scheme was not the
only irregularity. Other irregularities were found in connection
with the allocated councillors' social and political funds," Ranu
said, and that the discrepancies had added up to over Rp 1
billion.
In a separate development, a letter from the Inspectorate-
general at the Ministry of Home Affairs that had uncovered the
irregularities in the provincial budget (APBD), also ordered that
Yogyakarta Governor Hamengkubuwono X stop paying the councillors'
allowances since March. The cut amounts to two-thirds of their
monthly salary of Rp 6.2 million each.
When asked about the arrival of the home minister's letter of
approval, both Totok and Nur Achmad said they were ready to
comply with the summons.