T

he Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) accused on Friday Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali of abusing his power by flying around 100 people to Saudi Arabia to undertake a haj for free and without having to wait for years like most other pilgrims.

KPK deputy chairman Busyro Muqoddas said the favored few were allegedly Suryadaharma'€™s relatives and colleagues, including several officials from his ministry as well as lawmakers at the House of Representatives, whose names were falsely registered as Indonesian Haj Organizing Committee (PPHI) representatives.

'€œI cannot recall all of them, but some of them were Suryadharma'€™s relatives and lawmakers. They totaled around 100 people,'€ Busyro said at KPK headquarters on Friday, adding that the case had left many pilgrims feeling disappointed.

To add insult to injury, Busyro said the specially arranged pilgrimage for Suryadharma'€™s family and friends had used places originally intended for pilgrims who had waited for up to five years to go on the haj. '€œThe seats should have gone to pilgrims who had waited for years to go on the haj. We can sense, therefore, there was an abuse of power in this case,'€ Busyro said.

Each pilgrim is required to pay a deposit of Rp 25 million (US$2,168) to have their name placed on a waiting list for their planned trip to Mecca. The deposit is kept and managed by the Religious Affairs Ministry. Currently, there are nearly 2 million people on the waiting list. Last year, only 168,800 people were allowed to go to Mecca for the haj. '€œWe will see how our investigation progresses before determining whether the entire entourage will be charged or not,'€ Busyro went on.

Suryadharma, who is also chairman of the United Development Party (PPP), has been charged with malfeasance, enriching himself and others, as well as corporate enrichment under articles 2 and 3 of the 2001 Corruption Law.

Busyro added that the KPK had requested the ministry to impose a moratorium on the haj program in 2012, after becoming aware of potential corruption, but the ministry did not respond to the recommendation.

Suryadharma is the second active minister to be charged with graft following Democratic Party politician and former youth and sports minister Andi Mallarangeng, who announced his resignation the day he was named a suspect by the KPK.

Suryadharma announced on Friday that he would not resign from his post as minister, despite the charges, adding that he had to retain control of the ministry '€œto ensure that this year'€™s haj runs smoothly'€.

According to the KPK'€™s records, Suryadharma'€™s total wealth in 2009 was Rp 17 billion, but that figure increased to Rp 24 billion in 2012, three years after he became religious affairs minister.

Contacted separately, the Religious Affairs Ministry'€™s inspector general, M. Jasin, said his office had conducted an internal investigation into the haj program and found that a number of irregularities had allegedly taken place.

'€œFrom our investigation, we found some irregularities surrounding the procurement of accommodation for pilgrims in Saudi Arabia. For instance, although some of the housing was located in expensive areas, some other properties were not. However, the amounts paid for all the housing, irrespective of location, were the same. It seems that some of the prices may have been marked up,'€ Jasin told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

The Religious Affairs Ministry has long been perceived as notoriously corrupt, with the KPK naming it the most corrupt of the 22 government institutions it surveyed in 2011.

In April, the Jakarta Corruption Court sentenced Ahmad Jauhari, a former senior official at the ministry, to eight years in prison for his role in rigging the procurement of Korans.

The Koran scandal implicated a number of officials at the ministry, including Deputy Religious Affairs Minister Nasaruddin Umar and several House lawmakers. Nasaruddin'€™s status is still as a witnesses in the case.

Jauhari'€™s indictment claimed that he had collaborated with other individuals in the ministry, including Abdul Karim, the secretary-general at Jauhari'€™s directorate; Mashuri, a staffer at the ministry; Nasaruddin; Golkar Party lawmaker Zulkarnaen Djabar; Golkar politician Fahd El Fouz; PT Adhi Aksara Abadi Indonesia director Ali Djufrie and PT Sinergi Pustaka Indonesia director Abdul Kadir Alaydrus.