Despite the problems faced by its chairmen, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is showing that it is business as usual by continuing the investigation of one of its high-profile cases of alleged bribery in the election of former Bank Indonesia senior deputy governor Miranda S. Goeltom in 2004.
On Tuesday the commission summoned two ministers - Forestry Minister Malam Sambat Kaban and State Minister for National Development Planning Paskah Suzetta - as witnesses in the case. The two were members of House Commission IX overseeing financial and banking issues at the House of Representatives when the event took place.
"Both will be questioned as witnesses for Hamka Yandhu *who is a suspect in the case*," said KPK spokesman Johan Budi on Tuesday.However, Paskah failed to fulfill the summons and asked for a rescheduling of his questioning session.
"He sent us a letter informing us that he could not fulfill the summons due to a state duty he had to undertake, whereas Kaban arrived here before 10 a.m.," Johan said.
As of 3 p.m. Kaban had yet to conclude his questioning session.
The case emerged after legislator Agus Tjondro Prayitno admitted he had received Rp 500 million (US$50,000) in traveler's checks from his fellow legislator Emir Moeis a few days after the House approved Miranda to fill the BI senior deputy governor post in 2004.Miranda won 41 out of 54 votes from the members of House Commission IX overseeing banking and financial issues in June 2004.
The KPK later announced that four legislators that sat in the House of Representatives from 1999 to 2004 - Hamka Yandhu of the Golkar Party, Endin J. Soefihara from the United Development Party, Dudhie Makmun Murod from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and a Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) member, Udju Juhaeri, from the Indonesian Military faction, had been named suspects in the case.
According to a report from the Financial Transaction Report Analysis Center (PPATK), there were 400 traveler's checks allegedly relating to the BI senior deputy governor's election but only 10 of them were personally cashed by the legislators themselves.
Kaban, who was a member of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's campaign team in the 2009 presidential election, and Paskah had been mentioned by several witnesses in another alleged bribery case related to the Rp 31.5 billion ($3.15 million) in funds from the central bank's Indonesian Development Banking Foundation (YPPI) in 2003.
The money was disbursed by Hamka and his colleague Anthony Zeidra Abidin, also from Golkar, who received the money from BI senior official Rusli Simanjuntak in an attempt to persuade the lawmakers to approve BI's liquidity support settlement (BLBI) as well as accelerating the BI law amendment.
According to witnesses, Kaban and Paskah received Rp 300 million and Rp 1 billion respectively, however no investigation was ever conducted.
