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Riau Islands governor charged with graft
The Corruption Court has charged Riau Islands Governor Ismeth Abdullah over price rigging in a number of procurements of fire trucks during his tenure as administrator of the Batam Authority Body from 2004 to 2006
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he Corruption Court has charged Riau Islands Governor Ismeth Abdullah over price rigging in a number of procurements of fire trucks during his tenure as administrator of the Batam Authority Body from 2004 to 2006.
The graft is estimated to have caused the state Rp 5.4 billion (almost US$600,000) in losses.
The charges carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
Prosecutors accused Ismeth of personally appointing a company to procure five fire engines and a ladder truck, thus allowing the latter to inflate prices and share the earnings with the collaborators.
The first purchase was made in 2004, when Ismeth directly appointed PT Satal Nusantara to supply four fire engines worth more than Rp 7.9 billion in total.
The prosecution said Ismeth had ordered several of his subordinates to bribe Sofyan Usman, then a member of the House of Representatives’ budget commission.
Sofyan, a politician from the United Development Party (PPP), allegedly received Rp 1 billion
for helping approve a budget increase for the Batam Island Authorities to cover the purchase of the equipment.
In early October 2004, the Finance Ministry approved an extra Rp 10 billion for the Batam Island Authorities’ budget, the prosecution’s dossier read.
“Of that amount, the defendant allocated Rp 7.9 billion for the purchase of the fire trucks.”
However, “when the contract for the procurement was signed on Oct. 18, 2004, the budget for the four units of fire trucks had not been approved by the Finance Ministry,” the prosecution said.
The Batam Authorities paid the company Rp 7.09 billion after taxes for the engines.
“There was a markup of prices. The prices were set by PT Satal Nusantara,” prosecutors said, adding that the trucks would normally have been worth Rp 4.4 billion. The purchase therefore caused state losses of more than Rp 2.6 billion.
The second batch of equipment was procured in 2005. Satal Nusantara procured one fire engine and a ladder truck for the Batam Island Authorities for a total of Rp 11.9 billion. The mark up, prosecutors estimated, was Rp 2.8 billion.
Ismeth is the latest official implicated in the graft scandal, which was revealed in a Home Ministry memo sent to regional administrations nationwide on the procurement of fire trucks.
The ministry’s director general of regional autonomy at the time, Oentarto Sindung Mawardi, has been convicted and imprisoned for his role in the case.
Other convicted high-ranking officials include former West Java governor Danny Setiawan, former Medan mayor Abdullah and Satal Nusantara owner Hengky Samuel Daud.
The home minister at the time, Hari Sabarno, has been questioned by the Corruption Eradication Commission several times but has not been named a suspect despite claims by Oentarto that the procurement was “a conspiracy” involving Hari and Hengky. Hari has denied any involvement in the case.
