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West Java representatives reported to KPK for bribery

A parliamentary watchdog said it reported five West Java provincial legislative leaders to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for allegedly accepting bribes from regency and mayoralty administrations

Yuli Tri Suwarni (The Jakarta Post)
Bandung
Sat, August 14, 2010

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West Java representatives reported to KPK for bribery

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parliamentary watchdog said it reported five West Java provincial legislative leaders to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for allegedly accepting bribes from regency and mayoralty administrations.

West Java Parliament Watch chief Asep Hadian Permana said Friday that the officials were bribed to influence their decision on the amount of cash assistance administrations would receive from the 2009 and 2010 provincial budgets.

West Java Parliament Watch had obtained evidence to support the bribery allegations from documents detailing cash transfers to the West Java legislative leaders, he said.

The amount of the bribes was from 5 to 10 percent of the total cash value of assistance allocated by the provincial budget to each regency and mayoralty administration, he added.

Regencies and mayoralty administrations typically receive between Rp 15 billion (US$1.66 million) and Rp 30 billion from provincial budgets.

Asep said that Bekasi mayoralty and Bogor regency administration officials said that they were willing to testify in the case out of concern of being pressured by the West Java representatives.

“We reported the case to the KPK on Aug. 9 and were accompanied by the Indonesian Corruption Watch,” Asep told The Jakarta Post in Bandung, West Java, on Friday.

“Such illegal practices should not take place now, in the reform era,” he added.

The group also urged the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), as the state’s official auditor, to be involved in investigating the allegations.

The BPK could help audit the bank accounts of the five West Java legislators, which include the council’s speaker, who is from the Democrat Party, and his four deputies, Asep said.

The deputies are from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, the Golkar Party, the Justice Prosperous Party and the United Development Party.

Asep said the legislative leaders had allegedly approached the regency and mayoralty administrations and promised to facilitate cash disbursements if the regional leaders paid them a fee.

“The bigger the fee, the bigger the amount of assistance [regional leaders] would get,” he said.

Asep said he had proof of a Rp 1.4 billion bribe paid by the Bogor regency administration, which eventually received Rp 15 billion from the provincial budget, adding that there was also proof that Subang regency officials paid Rp 3.4 billion to obtain Rp 30 billion in assistance.

“We have handed over all the evidence to the KPK, which immediately started to investigate the case.”

West Java legislative speaker Irfan Suryanagara said his council absolutely did not understand the
accusation because the report filed with KPK alleged bribery when all funds were accounted for.

“There’s no imbalanced in funds from the province. Don’t simply report [allegations to the KPK] and not have the guts to tell it to the media,” said Irfan.

The amount of assistance funds cannot be influenced because the percentages and amounts were set by law, he said.

“The rules are clear. If someone receives more than is allowed, the central government will know about it and it would be a problem,” said Irfan.

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