T

he Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) will soon question Democratic Party (PD) chairman Anas Urbaningrum as a witness in a corruption case relating to the construction of a sports complex in Hambalang, in Bogor, West Java.

The questioning is a follow-up to a preliminary inquiry the antigraft body launched in August last year.

KPK spokesman Johan Budi confirmed the plan to question Anas, although fixed schedule has not been set. “Yes, there is a plan to summon him. However, we have yet to set the date,” Johan said over the weekend.

The Hambalang project has implicated several Democratic Party leaders, including former treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin, Youth and Sports Minister Andi Mallarangeng, party deputy secretary-general Saan Mustofa and Jafar Hafsah, who was recently removed from his position as Democratic faction chairman in the House of Representatives. None of them has been named a suspect in the case.

The Youth and Sports Ministry started the Hambalang project in 2010 with a budget of Rp 1.2 trillion (US$130.8 million). The ministry appointed state-owned PT Adhi Karya as the project manager.

Nazaruddin allegedly used one of his companies, PT Anugrah Nusantara, also allegedly owned by Anas, to help Adhi Karya win the tender for the project.

Nazaruddin allegedly ran several businesses within the holding company Permai Group to proxy-bid government projects that were later subcontracted to bigger companies in exchange for fees. A former lawmaker overseeing legal affairs, Nazaruddin is believed to have been the party’s cash machine.

Aside from the illicit tender process, the Hambalang case is also about the land permit which was allegedly obtained through irregular procedures in which Anas is suspected of having played a major role.

The head of the National Land Agency (BPN), Joyo Winoto, is accused of having accepted Rp 5 billion in bribes to issue the land certificate.

Democratic Party lawmaker Ignatius Mulyono, who was questioned last week, told KPK investigators that Anas once asked him to contact Joyo Winoto for an update on land clearance at the project site in 2009. At that time, Anas was chairman of the Democratic Party faction at the House.

“Pak Anas asked for a favor to ask about the land for the Youth and Sports Ministry and why it was taking so long,” Ignatius told reporters after facing a questioning session by the Corruption Eradication Commission last week.

He said that Anas, when making the request in 2009, was chairman of the Democratic Party faction at the House.

Ignatius said he could not reach Joyo, but he learned three weeks later the land titles for the new sport complex were ready.

Bambang Widjojanto, one of the KPK’s leaders, said the Hambalang project was a multifaceted case and that his office has identified many involved in it. “We’re currently analyzing different focal points in the case. There are several groups being investigated,” he said, adding that the investigation would take time as the KPK scrutinized not only the irregular procurement, but also the suspect land certificate.

KPK investigators have so far questioned at least 40 people from various parties in relation to the case, including Joyo Winoto and his colleagues at BPN’s West Java office, Nazaruddin and his former confidante at Permai Group, Mindo “Rosa” Rosalina Manulang.

KPK investigators have also questioned Hambalang’s deputy project leader, Yulianto, several officials from the Public Works Ministry and the Youth and Sports Ministry — including Wafid Muharram who is now serving a jail term for a different bribery case — and officials from Adhi Karya who were the Hambalang project organizers.

On Thursday, the KPK questioned Binsar Simbolon, who is head of BPN’s Bengkulu office. In 2010, at the time of the issuance of the land certificate for Hambalang, Binsar was a director of acquisition and administration for government land. Binsar declined to comment on his interrogation.