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KPK has enough evidence to confirm Agus' claims
Irawaty Wardany , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 09/03/2008 10:47 AM | National
The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has plenty of evidence to track down members of the House of Representatives' former Commission IX who allegedly received bribes in the election of a senior Bank Indonesia official, a legal expert said Tuesday.
Former Commission IX member Agus Condro sparked the controversy after confessing he and other legislators received traveler's cheques worth Rp 500 million (US$54,274) each, a few days after Miranda Swaray Goeltom was elected BI senior deputy governor in 2004.
"If someone confessed to receiving money (in relation to an election for an official position), that can be considered bribery, and their confession is legitimate evidence," University of Indonesia (UI) criminal expert Andi Hamzah told The Jakarta Post.
He said the KPK could easily track down the money or traveler's cheques through the Financial Transaction Reports Analysis (PPATK).
"If the KPK wants to prove his testimony, it can summon PPATK officials to confirm the information," he said, adding the evidence in the case was crystal clear.
The KPK previously said it did not have enough evidence to prove whether Miranda really gave the money to several members of the commission (now Commission XI), and said it had no plans yet to summon those accused by Agus.
Agus came to the KPK office on Tuesday to submit more evidence in the case.
"Last Tuesday, I came here to hand over my savings account book and my vehicle ownership documents, but KPK officials said they were not enough. So I came back today to give the rest: another savings account book and car receipts," the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) legislator said.
He admitted to cashing in the Rp 500 million cheque soon after receiving it from fellow PDI-P member Emir Moeis.
"I cashed the cheque at a Bank International Indonesia (BII) branch office in Pekalongan (Central Java) on June 11, 2004, and used the money to buy (two) cars and saved the rest," he said.
However, the KPK failed to respond positively to the new evidence.
"We still need to verify the evidence, and all the information we have so far is not strong enough," KPK spokesman Johan Budi said.
He added it was not easy to track down the traveler's cheques because Agus did not have any copies of them.
UI political expert Boni Hagens said the KPK found itself trapped between major parties' political interests.
"I'm sure there is a political consideration behind the KPK's reluctance to investigate the case further," he said.
He added it was hard to believe Agus was motivated to come clean a year before the general elections because of his "morality". "There must be another political party supporting him," Boni said.
He urged the PDI-P to called on its other members implicated in the case to testify.
"The party can't let this stop with Agus dropping out of the election and the party only to protect other members," he said.
