P

apua Police are determined to seriously tackle rampant corruption practice in the Papau and West Papua provinces.

On Tuesday, Papua Police’s directorate of special crimes questioned Maybrat Regent Bernard Sagrim on his capacity as a witness in the alleged Rp 3 billion (US$310 million) corruption case.

Accompanied by his lawyer Petrus Ohoitimur, Sagrim was interrogated with 40 questions from 9 a.m. local time.

Director of Papua Police’s special crimes Sr. Comr. Setyo Budiyanto explained that the misused funds were taken from grants amounting to Rp 15 billion awarded to West Papua province and Sorong Regency.

“After being audited by the Development Finance Controller [BPKP], it was found out Rp 3 billion of the funds was unaccounted for,” Setyo said, adding that the funds were initially intended to finance the government management in Maybrat, which had just been separated from Sorong regency in 2009.

Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian has instructed all police forces covering Papua and West Papua to get serious in their dealings with corrupt cases by November and December this year.

In response to his commitment to eradicate corruption in Papua, the National Police headquarters has provided Rp 2.8 billion (US$311,000) in funds and personnel backup to conduct joint investigations.

In 2011, Papua Police were able to uncover 28 graft cases and returned Rp 5.3 billion in lost funds to the state, and as of October this year, they handled 37 corrupt cases and saved Rp 120 billion of funds.

The redistribution of wealth has failed to materialize in Papua as most of the major funds channeled by the central government to Indonesia’s easternmost provinces have been wasted — or embezzled by the local elites — as is evident by the fact that Papua and West Papua remain the most disadvantaged regions.

In connection with the alleged fund misuse in Maybrat, the Papua Police have named Sepran Souw, a member of staff at the Maybrat regency.

“Sepran has been charged under Article 2 and 3 of Law No. 31/1999, which has been renews with Law No. 20/2001 on corruption with maximum jail sentence of 20 years,” Setyo said.

Setyo said further that the Papua Police had actually planned to question the Maybrat regent for a long time, but the plan was hindered by the fact that they had to ask for permission from the President. However, the limitation was already omitted after the Judicial Court issued a verdict that there is no need for all law enforcers to ask for permission from the President any longer. “This will speed up the investigation,” he added.

Sagrim went to the Papua Police headquarters in Jayapura to meet his summons.

His lawyer Petrus denied his client had any involvement in the graft case.

“The graft case has nothing to do with my client because each official has his or her own responsibility. Even though one of my client’s subordinates had been named as a suspect, his responsibility should not necessarily be burdened to his superior,” he said.

Petrus said that his client had cooperated with the police by meeting the summons. “My client was questioned as a witness,” he added.