Sutan Bhateogana: (JP/Jerry Adiguna)

Democratic Party lawmaker and former chairman of House of Representatives Commission VII Sutan Bhateogana was questioned as a suspect for the first time on Tuesday with regard to the bribery case surrounding the deliberation of the 2013 state budget for the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry.

The questioning of a person as a graft suspect is frequently followed by detention, but the antigraft body decided not to detain Sutan after having questioned him for nine hours at the Corruption Eradication Commission'€™s (KPK) headquarters.

Sutan said that he was grilled about the payoff allegedly given by the ministry to Commission VII, which oversees energy and natural resources and which was chaired by Sutan prior to his recent resignation.

Sutan made headlines late last year after graft and money-laundering convict, former Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Special Task Force (SKKMigas) head Rudi Rubiandini revealed that the outspoken lawmaker had repeatedly asked him for cash and gifts in exchange for his services in approving the budget for the ministry, which oversees SKKMigas.

It has become common practice for state agencies under the supervision of ministries to be used as
cash cows.

Sutan refused to name other House lawmakers who allegedly received money in relation to the deliberations of the ministry'€™s budget for the 2012-2013 period at the House.

'€œThere is no money in House Commission VII,'€ Sutan said, maintaining his innocence.

Closing his brief speech after the questioning, Sutan said that apart from the alleged payoff, the investigators also asked him about the deliberation process of the ministry'€™s budget at the House.

He declined to say whether Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik knew about the alleged payoff to the House.

KPK deputy chairman Bambang Widjojanto said that Sutan was questioned on a number of items of evidence that KPK investigators had acquired during their investigation into the case.

'€œWhether he is detained or not after the questioning is the prerogative of the investigators and I have not talked to them about it yet,'€ Bambang said at the KPK headquarters on Tuesday night.

Rudi, during his trial in January, admitted that he '€œhad been forced to'€ accept millions of dollars in bribes from oil and gas companies, as he was allegedly under pressure to make payments to the House and the ministry.

Rudi said that Sutan had also asked him to pay US$200,000 worth of '€œholiday bonuses'€ for Commission VII lawmakers in 2013.

Also during Rudi'€™s trial, former SKKMigas deputy for business affairs, Gerhard Marteen Rumeser, revealed that Sutan had asked Rudi to favor PT Timas Suplindo for an offshore construction project worth more than $600 million, held by a local unit of US energy giant Chevron.

Rudi later declared Timas the tender winner, although President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono'€™s cousin, Sartono Hutomo, who is also chief treasurer of the Democrats, allegedly tried to block the move, as he backed PT Rekayasa Industri (Rekin), a company reportedly owned by a friend of Edhie '€œIbas'€ Baskoro, Yudhoyono'€™s youngest son.

On Wednesday last week, Sutan resigned from his post as commission chairman.

Sutan said his decision to resign was made on his own, without pressure from party chairman President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

'€œConsidering my current status [as a graft suspect], it was not wise for me to lead Commission VII anymore. This is the manifestation of my responsibility to the public and to fellow lawmakers of Commission VII,'€ Sutan said last week.

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