Municipal secretary tried for alleged bribery

A municipal secretary went on trial for bribery on Thursday, but his superior, who is believed to be the mastermind in the case, has not been named a suspect.

Akhmat Zaenuri, the secretary of the Semarang municipal administration, stood trial at the local corruption court for allegedly bribing city councilors.

The bribery was allegedly attempted with the expectation that the councilors would approve the administration’s draft bylaw on the city budget.

“The defendant on his own or together with [Semarang Mayor] Soemarmo gave or promised to give cash worth Rp 304 million [US$34,048] and Rp 40 million to the city councilors,” Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutor Pulung Rinandoro read from the indictment during the trial hearing, which was presided over by judge Iva Sudewi.

Zaenuri was arrested by the KPK at his office on Nov. 24, 2011, over allegations that he had handed over Rp 304 million in cash to two councilors: Sumartono of the Democratic Party and Agung Purno Sarjono of the National Mandate Party.

Both have also been named as suspects in the case and are also being detained by the KPK. However, Semerang Mayor Soemarmo, who some say masterminded the bribery, has been questioned only as a witness.

Some of the money was reportedly later distributed to three other councilors: Hendrar Prihadi of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Agung Priyambodo of the Golkar Party and Suharyanto of the Gerindra Party. Each reportedly accepted between Rp 40 million and Rp 104 million.

The KPK seized 20 envelopes each containing between Rp 1 million and Rp 2 million from the car belonging to one of the councilors, and a number of documents from the city legislative council.

During the court session, Mayor Soemarmo was repeatedly mentioned as the one who ordered Zaenuri to distribute the money to the councilors.

He was also said to be the one who held a meeting with Agung Purno Sarjono to ease the approval of the drafted bylaw, to which the latter asked for Rp 10 billion in return.

“It’s better to give them [councilors] the money. Otherwise, they would ask for projects and give us trouble because the projects usually do not yield good results and the accountability reports would be submitted late,” prosecutor Pulung said, quoting the tape recording of a conversation in which Soemarmo decided that the bribe money be paid out to the councilors.

Soemarmo, who repeatedly denied any involvement in the case, has not been named a suspect.

In Yogyakarta, Gadjah Mada University’s Corruption Analysis Center (Pukat) and the Yogyakarta Anticorruption Network called for thorough handling of several stalled graft cases.

Those cases include the establishment of CDMA-based communication facilities worth Rp 17 billion in 2004, insurance funds for councilors (Rp 1.3 billion, 2004) and funds allocated for after-work councilors in Sleman and Kulonprogo (tens of millions, 2004).

“We want the prosecutor’s office to deal with those old and stalled graft cases,” Tri Wahyu, an activist with the anticorruption network, said.

They met chief prosecutor Muh Ali Muntohar to deliver their demand but Ali, according to Tri, refused to talk about the cases in detail.

Ali told reporters that his office would work on the graft cases if there was enough evidence.

“If there is sufficient evidence, we will proceed with the cases. We don’t indulge in finding other people’s mistakes,” he said.

The communication equipment-related graft case could implicate Governor Sri Sultan Hamengku
Buwono X. Hifdzil Alim from Pukat, said that a periodical meeting would be necessary to monitor the progress of the cases.