T

he antigraft body found indications that suspects and other figures implicated in a high-profile Southeast Asian (SEA) Games graft case may have been involved in graft cases in other government projects, a top leader says.

Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairman M. Jasin said Saturday the KPK had begun studying preliminary evidence of other possible graft the commission had found while investigating the corruption surrounding a SEA Games construction project in Palembang, South Sumatra.

“This case does not end at the suspects we already know of. We are collecting and analyzing more data,” Jasin told The Jakarta Post.

At Friday’s trial of Mindo Rosalina Manulang, an official at PT Duta Graha Indah (DGI), the firm awarded the construction project, DGI president director Dudung Purwadi testified DGI had also won bids on other government projects with the assistance of fugitive graft suspect and former Democratic Party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin and his company PT Anugrah Nusantara.

The KPK earlier indicated DGI won the bid for the Rp 191.6 billion (US$22.51 million) SEA Games project by manipulating the bidding process.

Dudung said other projects DGI had won bids on included the 2009 construction of Airlangga University’s Infectious and Tropical Disease Hospital in Surabaya, East Java, worth Rp 400 billion, and the development of state-run Adam Malik Hospital in Medan, North Sumatra.

Sources within the KPK said Nazaruddin controlled more than 100 firms that acted as proxies by biding on government projects they would then subcontract to larger companies.

An official document showed Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum purchased a 30 percent stake in Anugrah in 2007, but relinquished his stake in the firm in 2009. Anas, who was not available for comment Saturday, frequently denied the link.

Anugrah also allegedly engineered a bid in 2009 to construct an avian influenza research facility worth Rp 718 billion.

Questions were raised as to how Anugrah, a general contractor, could win the bid against other competitors such as state-run pharmaceuticals giant PT Biofarma.

Jasin said the KPK would not hesitate to probe top political figures such as Anas.

Democratic Party ethics council secretary Amir Syamsuddin said Anas would not be investigated by the council for graft.

“The allegations are baseless. The testimony at yesterday’s court hearing was vague and did not definitively link Anas to practices of corruption,” he said.