T

he Attorney General’s Office (AGO) has named another tax official, identified only as RNK, as a suspect in a graft case surrounding the 2010 procurement of computer software.

The new suspect is an employee of the Directorate General on Taxation, AGO spokesman Adi Toegarisman told reporters in Jakarta on Wednesday.

“Our team has found new evidence proving RNK’s involvement in the case,” Adi stated, adding that the suspect had been banned from leaving the country.

He added that the prosecutors suspected RNK acted as a middleman to ensure IT company PT Berca Hardaya won the tender to provide the software.

Company director Lim Hendar Halingkar has also been named a suspect by prosecutors.

Berca Hardaya is owned by Sri Hartati Murdaya, a noted businesswoman who has close ties with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Hartati also serves as a member on the Democratic Party’s board of patrons.

She also serves as a member of the National Economic Board.

Hartati’s husband was dismissed from his position as a lawmaker representing the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) in May 2009 for supporting Yudhoyono’s candidacy in the 2009 presidential election.

In 2007, Hartati made headlines after the Customs Agency withheld a shipment of 40,000 pairs of shoes produced by her company for lacking export documents.

Hartati later wrote to the State Palace calling for an intervention in the case.

Reports at the time said that a high-ranking official from the State Palace agreed to intervene in the case and helped with the release of the shipment.

Forbes magazine named Hartati the 13th-richest person in Indonesia in 2008.

In the Berca Herdaya case, the AGO previously named two other tax officials as suspects: Bahar and Pulung Sukarno.

Bahar, an official from the Data Processing and Taxation Documents Center, chaired the tender committee, while Pulung was the head of the procurement team.

“We have completed the dossiers on both suspects. We will send them to the South Jakarta District Court immediately,” he said.

The AGO will charge both suspects under Articles 2 and 3 of the 2001 Corruption Law on benefiting private parties while causing state losses. Each article carries a maximum sentence of 20 years’
imprisonment.

The AGO began investigating last November, after it received reports from the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) about irregularities concerning the computer system that had cost the state up to Rp 43 billion (US$4.7 million).

The case allegedly caused Rp 14 billion in state losses.

Prosecutors have questioned 25 witnesses in the case.

PT Berca Hardaya has denied any wrongdoing.

One of the lawyers for the company, Marchel H., confirmed that his client took part in the tender but claimed that PT Berca Hardaya had followed all the procedures set by the tender committee.

The tender committee, certified in December 2006, maintained that the company had delivered all the items procured in the tender.

“If something went wrong, such as the loss of some items or a reduction in the number of items after our delivery was approved, PT BHP could not be held accountable,” Marchel said.