Speaking as a witness during a court hearing on Thursday, Jakarta Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama said that he was cheated by his subordinate with regard to the procurement of uninterruptible power supply (UPS) units in 2014.

"He lied to me, therefore I dismissed him from his position as city inspectorate head," said Ahok, referring to former city education head Lasro Marbun during the hearing on Thursday.

The hearing is related to UPS procurement in the revised 2014 city budget at a price of Rp 6 billion (US$433,839) per unit for each school, with a total budget of Rp 300 billion.

Ahok, called to the hearing to testify against Alex Usman, a suspect in the case and the former infrastructure division head at the West Jakarta Education Office at Jakarta Corruption Court, said that Lasro told him that he did not know about the inclusion of the UPS units into the 2014 revised budget. However, from previous court hearings it is known that the inclusion of the UPS units into the city budget was done with Lasro'€™s knowledge.

Lasro was promoted to head of the city inspectorate because Ahok considered him to be a credible city administration official but, later, Ahok dismissed him.

Ahok told the judge at the Jakarta Corruption Court that the procurement of the UPS units was not discussed when the budgetary team had debated a budget document known as the General Budget Policies and Provisional Budget Ceiling and Priorities (KUA-PPAS).

Ahok explained to the judges that, in 2014, his administration had focused its efforts on renovating damaged schools, rather than procuring UPS for schools. Therefore, Ahok said that he was furious when he knew that UPS procurement was included in the revised budget.

Ahok was even more confused when the procurement of UPS units was again included in the 2015 city budget. "Procuring UPS is not a priority at all. I was confused that UPS procurement was included in the draft budget," Ahok said.

"I was so furious with the education agency. It is better for us to buy gen-sets rather than procure UPS units," Ahok said, adding that he, however, did not know who had included the UPS procurement into the 2015 city budget bill.

Because of the UPS procurement, Ahok got involved in a serious conflict with city councilors because there were two versions of the 2015 city budget bill '€“ the city administration version and a city council version. This came to light after the 2015 city budget was returned by Home Affairs Ministry for revision.

Because of this issue, the budget deliberation ended with a deadlock and therefore the city administration had to use the 2014 city budget scheme for its 2015 city budget.

Two Jakarta civil servants are standing trial in the case, Alex Usman and Zaenal Soleman, the former head of the Central Jakarta Education Office. In November, National Police also named Fahmi Zulfikar, a Hanura Party councilor and member of the council'€™s Commission E overseeing people'€™s welfare, and M. Firmansyah, a Democratic Party councilor during the 2009 to 2014 period, as suspects in the case. (bbn)

Popular

RI, Australia strengthen partnership on taxing crypto assets

Analysis: Indonesia denies normalization with Israel to enter OECD

Citroen to produce electric cars in Indonesia