Sujudi was found guilty of bypassing legal procedures for the provision of medical equipment to 32 public hospitals in eastern Indonesia and to the Indonesian Red Cross.

His lack of adherence to accepted biding protocol cost the state Rp 104.46 billion (US$11.05 million) in losses, the head of the presiding panel of judges, Jupriadi, said Friday.

The judges also imposed a fine of Rp 100 million, or an additional three months in prison if he defaulted on the fine.

On Friday, Sujudi was also found guilty of marking up the budget for health equipment procurement to Rp 170 billion from the actual cost of Rp 66 billion.

In Tuesday’s session, prosecutors said they were seeking a 5-year prison sentence Rp 200 million in fines.

They also sought for him to be required to pay Rp 700 million in restitution to the state.

In handing down their ruling, the judges said that in 2003, Sujudi had directly appointed state-owned pharmaceutical company PT Kimia Farma as the supplier for the provision project, a violation of the 2000 presidential decree on state procurement procedures, which states that government institutions must tender all projects.

The judges said Sujudi colluded with Kimia Farma president director Gunawan Pranoto and PT Rifa Jaya Mulia director Rinaldi Yusuf to defraud the state.

The judges also ruled that prosecutors had failed to prove that Sujudi accepted bribes of Rp 200 million from Gunawan and Rp 500 million from Rinaldi.

“It was strange that even though the judges stated in the verdict that Sujudi never accepted the alleged bribes from Gunawan and Rinaldi, they still convicted our client,” defense counsel Humphrey R. Djemat said, adding that his client would consider appealing.

Following the ruling, Sujudi insisted that he “never accepted Rp 700 million”.

In a previous hearing, he testified that he had waived the tender process because the eastern Indonesia region needed the medical equipment immediately.

However, when reading out the verdict, the judges rejected his reasoning, saying there was no obvious emergency in Eastern Indonesia at the time.

Following Sujudi’s conviction, Djemat questioned the judges’ ruling, claiming that even without an emergency situation, eastern Indonesia urgently required the equipment. He cited the chronic lack of infrastructure and facilities in the region. (ipa)

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