House bows to KPK’s meeting requirements

In an apparent attempt to save face for both sides, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) finally accepted the House of Representatives’ (DPR) consultation invitation after House leaders confirmed that the House’s budget committee would not attend the meeting.

The committee previously insisted on summoning leaders of the KPK for a hearing, leading to public suspicion that the legislators merely wanted to retaliate against the antigraft agency for questioning four of its leaders in a high profile corruption case at the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry. The committee members also boycotted their deliberations of the 2012 State Budget draft bill in protest at the questioning.

KPK spokesman Johan Budi announced the deal on Friday. He confirmed that his agency had eventually agreed to meet with House leaders on condition that the budget committee would not be present.

Citing legal procedures, the KPK claimed it is prohibited to meet with people who are on one of their investigations lists.

The KPK questioning sparked friction between the committee and the KPK, as the committee felt its budgeting functions were being targeted by the KPK. The House leadership initially backed the committee and later threatened to boycott the budget deliberations unless they could meet with the KPK first to clear up the issue.

The House committee members are allegedly notorious for demanding kickbacks and bribes from ministries, regional governments and other state agencies in return for allocating state budget funds.

Meanwhile, one of the suspects at the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry told KPK interrogators that he got involved in the corruption case because he had an obligation to abide by the instructions of Minister Muhaimin Iskandar’s aides, who boasted that they were official consultants for the budget committee.

“They first introduced themselves as consultants for the budget committee. I don’t know if it’s right to call them brokers,” said suspect I Nyoman Suisnaya, the secretary to the directorate general for transmigration area development at the ministry, after he underwent questioning at the KPK headquarters on Friday.

He referred to Sindu Malik Pribadi, a former official with the taxation directorate at the Finance Ministry, as well as two other aides: National Awakening Party (PKB) politician Ali Mudhori and Iskandar “Acos” Pasojo.

“The project has strong links to them as they provided much information to the regencies who are involved in the program,” he added.

His statement is in line with Ali’s testimony given earlier this week, in which he implied that the Rp 500 billion (US$57 million) program to build resettlement areas in 19 regencies across the country, including the allegedly corrupt case in Papua, was supported by the committee’s deputy leader Tamsil Linrung from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

Ali described Tamsil as “the hero of the program”, to whom many people in these regencies turned for help.

Tamsil denied the allegation. Tamsil, as well as the three other committee leaders, told the KPK investigators during their questioning last week that the mechanism of transferring funds to the regions relating to the program was legal.