Zawawi admits manipulation in rice distribution

JAKARTA (JP): The former head of the city's logistics agency (Dolog Jaya), Ahmad Zawawi, has admitted manipulation of rice distribution was rife throughout the city during his five-month tenure, police said Wednesday.

The head of the city police's economics crimes unit, Lt. Col. Saut Usman Nasution, disclosed that during eight hours of questioning on Tuesday, Zawawi admitted that more than half the daily rice supplies intended for market operations for Jakartans were frequently stolen.

The city's demand for rice was estimated at about 5,000 metric tons daily, but the agency distributed only 2,000 to 2,500 tons per day, Saut quoted Zawawi as saying.

"The remainder was sold illegally to Zawawi's close associates and other rice distributors, using fake delivery orders," Saut said.

These illegal practices caused rice prices to soar, thereby enabling suppliers and distributors who hoarded the commodity to sell it for bigger profits, Saut said.

"During the lengthy questioning, we were forced to ask him (Zawawi) to support his oral statements with his agency's documents about the distribution," he said.

The agency's data showed that Dolog held about 465,000 tons of rice as of early this month, enough for the consumption in Jakarta for three months.

Zawawi told a media briefing earlier that Dolog had launched market operations to overcome the chaotic rice market by assigning 260 Dolog partners (distributors) to carry out the operations in markets and housing complexes.

However, police later identified that many of them turned out to be bogus.

About 3,000 distributors are currently registered as Dolog partners.

Zawawi was initially summoned as a witness over the arrest of 15 distributors for their alleged involvement in the rice trading with fake delivery orders at his office and the planned illicit export of 1,900 tons of rice.

Police named him as the main suspect during questioning on Monday, but halted the interrogation after he vomited.

Zawawi was scheduled to attend another questioning session on Wednesday but he failed to show up.

City police spokesman Lt. Col. Edward Aritonang confirmed that lawyers from the law bureau of the National Logistics Agency (Bulog) told police that Zawawi was sick.

"Today he (Zawawi) was scheduled to be questioned at 10 a.m., but his lawyers came to the police and told them that he was too sick to go out," Aritonang said, without providing details of Zawawi's sickness.

Aritonang also said the police's findings in the first investigation would be cross-checked with the evidence, citing documents and the agency's internal files and some witnesses' testimonies. (emf)