M

anpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar on Monday testified at the Jakarta Corruption Court, saying he knew nothing about the alleged Rp 1.5 billion (US$166,500) bribery scandal implicating the ministry officials.

Standing as a witness in the trial of Dadong Irbarelawan and I Nyoman Suisnaya, Muhaimin claimed innocence in the scandal which has sent businesswoman Dharnawati to 2.5 years in jail.

“I didn’t know about the bribery case until the scandal blew up,” he told the panel of judges.

Two ministry officials Dadong and Nyoman have been accused of accepting bribes from Dharnawati who intended to win a construction project in Papua as part of the Infrastructure Development Acceleration Program (PPID).

The court sentenced Dharnawati to 2.5 years in prison after she was proven guilty of handing over the bribe money amounting to Rp 1.5 billion.

Previously, Dharnawati testified that she also intended to pay off Muhaimin after her company won the tender for the project.

During the trial, Dadong presented two letters identified with B-73 and B-97 as evidence. The B-73 letter is a proposal for the PPID disbursement fund signed by the ministry’s general secretary Muchtar Lutfi while the B-97 letter is a proposal for regular projects in the ministry.

Muhaimin, chairman of the National Awakening Party (PKB), said he did not know about the letter numbered B-73 before the graft case come into spotlight.

The minister has also pointed his finger to the Finance Ministry and local regents whom he claimed responsible for the PPID’s programs. As for the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry, he said that it “only provide technical data and a kind of term of references [for the PPID’s project].”

Prosecutor M. Rum said that Muhaimin’s testimony was awkward because he supposedly know about the so called B-73 proposal letter for the PPID program.

“He [Muhaimin] should have known about the B-73 letter, because the proposed transmigration area is the same with the B-97. The type of infrastructure is also same,” Rum said.

Muhaimin’s Monday remark coincidently has similarities with the testimony of other government top officials who have been grilled over graft case.

Youth and Sports Minister Andi Mallarangeng also answered “I don’t know” for almost all questions when he was testifying at a corruption trial of his subordinates in his ministry recently.

A week before Muhaimin’s testimony, lawmaker and former Miss Indonesia Angelina Sondakh also stayed quiet when she was testifying at the corruption trial of former Democratic Party colleague Muhammad Nazaruddin.

Presiding judge Hendri Agusten adjourned the PPID case trial until Monday, when prosecutors are expected to present additional
witnesses.

Dozens of members of the PKB appeared at the Monday’s trial to support their party’s chairman.

The supporters chanted invocations from the Koran’s verses as they escorted Muhaimin out of the Corruption Court’s building into a luxurious multipurpose vehicle Toyota Alphard, owned by Muhaimin. (rpt)