A businessman admitted Friday to giving the South Sumatra administration Rp 5 billion (US$418,000) to help it win approval from the House of Representatives for the construction of a port.
During his testimony at the Corruption Court, Chandra Antonio Tan said although he knew the payment was a bribe, he lent it to the government officials anyway. The money was never returned, he added.
Chandra, also a suspect in the graft case, said he gave the money to provincial secretary Sofyan Rebuin after the two met at the gubernatorial office on Oct. 9, 2006.
Sofyan, according to Chandra, said the provincial administration needed Rp 5 billion to ensure House approval for converting a 600-hectare mangrove forest in Pantai Air Telang into Tanjung Api-api Port.
"The provincial administration needed the money. They would have been ashamed to investors who had been offered the project if the House didn't approve the conversion plan," Chandra told the court, which was hearing the corruption and extortion trial of former legislator Al Amin Nur Nasution.
Amin is charged with receiving bribes in the forest conversion case and with extorting money from a company that took part in a tender to procure GPS devices for the Forestry Ministry.
Chandra said he went to Jakarta on Oct. 12, 2006, to buy Bank Mandiri traveler's checks worth Rp 5 billion, but said Sofyan claimed he only needed half the amount.
He alleged Sofyan asked him to give the checks to Sarjan Tahir, a member of the House's Commission IV overseeing forestry affairs, at the House building.
"But I didn't dare give it myself, so Sofyan asked Samuel Chatib, the head of the plantation agency, to go with me to give Sarjan the Rp 2.5 billion in traveler's checks," Chandra said.
Chandra said both Sofyan and Sarjan called him in June 2007 to ask for the remaining Rp 2.5 billion.
Then governor Syahrial Oesman told the businessman to go with Sofyan and the head of the revenue agency, Musrif, to Jakarta to hand over the rest of the checks, Chandra added.
The checks were handed over at a hotel in Senayan, Central Jakarta, he said.
"Those in attendance at the meeting were Sarjan Tahir, Yusuf Emir Faishal and another person I didn't know," Chandra recalled.
He acknowledged giving the money without any receipt or promise of repayment from the South Sumatra administration.
"That was not the first time Sofyan borrowed money from me, and he would always return it," he explained.
Another witness, Commission IV member Azwar Chesputra, confessed to receiving Rp 100 million in travel checks from Yusuf and another Rp 25 million from the South Sumatra administration during a visit to the province.
"I think all legislators who visited the province also got some money," he said.
He added he had cashed in the Rp 100 million and spent it on communal activities. "I did not enjoy the money myself," he told the court.
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