Jakarta Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama testified at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Thursday in an alleged graft case regarding uninterruptible power supply (UPS) unit procurement, dropping the names of more subordinates whom he suspects of lying to him.

Prior to the hearing Ahok said that his testimony would likely drag more suspects into the case.

While taking the stand, Ahok told the court that he had no idea how the UPS procurement budget could have been passed without the knowledge of some of his subordinates.

'€œThe 2014 budget priorities did not contain anything about UPS. It just appeared suddenly and until today I do not know who was responsible,'€ Ahok said.

Ahok emphasized that, prior to the case exposure, he had never met the defendant, Alex Usman.

Alex, former infrastructure section head of the West Jakarta Education Agency, was named a defendant in the case when prosecutors charged him under Article 2 paragraph 1 and Article 3 of the Corruption Eradication Law as well as Article 55 of the Criminal Code, that carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.

Along with the former head of the Central Jakarta Education Agency, Zainal Soleman, Alex was accused of abusing his authority by helping to pass the UPS procurement in the 2014 revised city budget at a price of Rp 6 billion (US$442,315) in exchange for a 7 percent fee from the Rp 300 billion budget allocated for the project.

The indictment states that the potential state loss from the case is Rp 81.4 billion.

During Thursday'€™s hearing Ahok said that, as far as he knew, there were a few things that had been categorized as '€œurgent'€ and added in the revised city budget, including transportation management, flood anticipation and improving the quality of people-related activity.

'€œThe only thing related to education in the revised budget was the revitalization of school buildings. Not a single thing about UPS,'€ he said.

The governor went on to say that he felt cheated when he found out that some people had tried to insert particular projects discreetly, therefore he applied the electronic budgeting system, known as e-budgeting, that only select registered officials could access in order to make changes.

Presiding judge Sutardjo pressed on by asking how a governor could have not been aware of such a violation, emphasizing that his subordinate, the Jakarta Education Agency head, should be one of the few people who found anything suspicious in UPS procurement for schools.

Commenting on the judges'€™ statement, Ahok said he had asked Lasro Marbun, then Education Agency head, as soon as he found irregularities in the revised budget.

'€œBut Lasro told me that he was extremely shocked and was not aware of the procurement,'€ Ahok said, adding that he felt cheated by Lasro and had dismissed him from his latest position as Jakarta Inspectorate General.

During Thursday'€™s hearing Prosecutor Tasripin also suggested that the Jakarta Development Planning Board (Bappeda) had the authority to '€œremove'€ any suspicious project from city budget. Ahok said he was aware of that but added that no one from the board wanted to claim responsibility.

Ahok said the then head of Bappeda, Andi Basso, should have been able to stop the suspicious procurement but said that Andi had failed to do so. Ahok also dismissed Andi from his position.

Prior to his testimony Ahok hinted that he would disclose more evidence during the court hearing in order to help police and prosecutors, adding that he believed '€œanother suspect will be named in this case'€.

However, he mostly repeatedly during the hearing that he had no idea (how the procurement could suddenly find its way onto the budget list).

'€œI told you I don'€™t know, I cannot know everything, what do you think I am? A Superman?'€ Ahok responded to a question from Alex'€™s lawyer.

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