I never knew about price rigging: Ex-health minister

Former health minister Siti Fadillah Supari says she knows nothing about the alleged price fixing of medical equipment in the handling of a bird flu epidemic in 2006.

The case centers on the direct appointment of PT Bersaudara for a Rp 98.6 billion (US$10.75 million) project.

All government procurement projects worth more than Rp 200 million should undergo a public bidding as stipulated in a 2010 presidential regulation on procurement of goods and services.

“I do not know about the direct appointment of the company,” Siti told reporters after she underwent a five-hour questioning session at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) headquarters on Wednesday.

However, she said, she had told KPK investigators about what she knew in connection with the case when she was the minister.

“I told them everything I know,” she said.

Siti was appearing as a witness for a graft suspect, former secretary of a directorate general at the ministry Mulya A. Hasjmy.

It was not the first time that she has undergone KPK questioning. In April 2011, she was questioned as a witness for the same case.

The case has also implicated ministry director Ratna Dewi Umar and a former secretary at the Office of the Coordinating People’s Welfare Minister, Soetedjo Yuwono.

Ratna was named a suspect in 2010 while Soetedjo was sentenced to three years in jail in August 2011 for directly appointing the company in the project.

The state suffered Rp 36.3 billion in losses as Soetedjo bought the equipment for only Rp 48 billion, half of the actual project value. (mtq)