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Ex-Bulog head accused in rice import graft scandal
The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 04/26/2007 3:24 PM
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Attorney General's Office declared Wednesday former State Logistics Agency (Bulog) head Widjanarko Puspoyo and his brother Widjokongko Puspoyo official suspects in a corruption case involving rice imports from Vietnam between 2001 and 2002.
Junior Attorney General for Special Crimes Hendarman Supandji said his office would name more suspects in the coming weeks in the case that involves alleged graft in the transfer of US$1.5 million from the Vietnamese exporter to several private accounts belonging to or connected with Widjanarko's family.
""This is the first step and there's always the possibility for more suspects ahead,"" he said.
It was not clear whether prosecutors would immediately detain Widjokongko, although they said he had been prohibited from leaving the country.
Widjanarko himself has been in detention since March after he was named a suspect in another graft case, one revolving around the Rp 11 billion (US$1.2 million) Australian cattle import scandal in 2001.
The Attorney General's Office has so far questioned Widjanarko's immediate family members, including first wife Endang Ernawaty, son Rinaldy, daughter Winda Nindiaty Djuanda and her husband Andre Djuanda and second wife Ely.
The rice import case involves US$1.2 million transferred between 2002 and 2003 to an account belonging to Widjokongko.
It is suspected that the money was a gift in return for selecting a certain Vietnamese company to do the imports.
The account, which has been frozen, is held at a branch of Bank Bukopin. Several other accounts in a total of three banks have also been deactivated.
The investigation team had previously found a total of $1.5 million transferred from the Vietnam Southern Food Corporation via the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City, to the account of PT Tugu Dana Utama, Bulog's partner for Vietnam rice procurement, at Bank HSBC Hong Kong.
PT Tugu then transferred $1.2 million to Widjokongko's account at Bukopin.
From that account, a sum of money is alleged to have been transferred to several private accounts belonging to Widjanarko, his wife Endang E. and his children.
Aside from handling these two cases, the Attorney General's Office is also working on another possible graft case involving Widjanarko during his time at the Bulog, which has been accused of being a ""cash cow"" for governments in the past.
While he did not go into details, Hendarman said his office was meeting with the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) to check on preliminary findings in the case.
""Meeting with the BPK was necessary to clear out our evidence,"" he said.
