It takes two to corrupt

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 07/26/2007 11:55 AM

Former maritime affairs and fisheries minister Rokhmin Dahuri's seven-year jail sentence for corruption sends a strong, clear message: Sharing ill-gotten wealth with political and religious leaders, senior government officials and members of the House of Representatives cannot protect those involved in graft from the law.

The booty Rokhmin spread around in 2002-2004 was called off-budget funds, but it was nothing more than corruption money. Rokhmin acted as a rent-seeker by ordering the provincial offices of his ministry to deduct a certain percentage of their respective budget allocations and transfer the money to a special account in Jakarta under the name of Andin H. Taryoto, then secretary-general at the ministry.

He also ordered his subordinates to collect funds from suppliers of services and goods to the ministry and transfer the money to Andin's account.

Rokhmin said he was raising the funds for ""crash programs to improve the living conditions of fishermen"", but the bulk of the money, estimated at Rp 11.50 billion (US$1.2 million), ended up in the pockets of his family members and more than 35 senior officials and political figures, including presidential candidates.

The Rokhmin case and an earlier court verdict that saw Andin jailed for 18 months also serve as a warning to government officials: ignore orders from superiors or even Cabinet ministers if these orders are against the law, because arguing you were simply following orders will not keep you out of jail.

However, the two verdicts are only half of the story of the off-budget fund scandal at the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, and the long list of the recipients of the corruption money. It takes two to tango. Corruption always involves at least two parties -- the one who illegally gives the money and the one who receives it.

Most of the alleged recipients have bluntly denied having ever received money from Rokhmin or Andin, apparently confident they are untouchable because of the absence of legal evidence.

Several House members and Amien Rais, one of the presidential candidates in 2004, have admitted receiving money from Rokhmin, but they naively claimed they did not believe they did anything wrong.

But the fact that they bluntly denied Rokhmin's court testimony but stopped short of filing defamation suits against him raises questions about their honesty and innocence.

If they truly feel insulted by Rokhmin's accusations and they really believe they are innocent, they should bring him to court for defamation.

Even more flabbergasting was the argument by some House members that they did not know the money they received from Rokhmin was off-budget funds raised through questionable means.

They should be well posted on the budget allocations managed by the ministry since they are responsible for approving its annual budget. Hence, these House members should have been suspicious of Rokhmin's generosity in spreading around such large sums of money way beyond his ministry's budget capability.

We therefore urge the Attorney General's office and the Corruption Eradication Commission to launch a transparent and thorough investigation into the scandal.

We do not believe this type of scandal or questionable bank accounts is the monopoly of the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry. Many government institutions have resorted to such rent-seeking efforts to raise off-budget funds to circumvent the tight, elaborate procedures of accountability required by the State Budget Law.

The Finance Ministry and the Supreme Audit Agency revealed recently the discovery of almost 3,200 dubious government-related accounts at banks containing the equivalent of nearly $2 billion. The finance minister promised to sort out the bank accounts, which were opened by state institutions but have never been accounted for in the annual government financial statements (balance sheet). But these practices have occurred at state and government institutions for years.

The existence of such questionable bank accounts is one of the reasons the Supreme Audit Agency has slapped a disclaimer on the annual government budget report over the past six years.

Thorough investigations of the fund scandals at the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry and the prosecution of those involved would improve public confidence in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's commitment to fighting corruption.

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