T

he Mataram Police have arrested two officials of the Religious Affairs Ministry’s West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) office for allegedly demanding and accepting illegal levies from two earthquake-affected mosques in Batulayar and Lingsar districts, West Lombok.

A 43-year-old official, identified only as LBR, was arrested on Tuesday in Gunungsari, West Lombok, for allegedly pocketing Rp 10 million (US$706).

Investigators seized two cash-stuffed envelopes from LBR and accused him of demanding and accepting money from the mosques.

Hours later, the police arrested LBR’s senior, identified as IK, for allegedly being the mastermind behind the extortion bid.

“We arrested IK on Tuesday night during a raid at his house. Investigators found Rp 55 million in cash stashed there,” Mataram Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Saiful Alam said on Wednesday. “Our preliminary investigation found that IK had allegedly ordered LBR to demand 20 percent from every disbursement of the mosque rehabilitation fund.”

According to the police, LBR was responsible for collecting data on damaged mosques.

For the post-disaster recovery plan, the ministry allocated Rp 65 billion to help West Lombok rebuild around 200 mosques across the regency.

“We are still digging into the case to see whether there are other suspects,” Saiful said.

Tuesday’s incident was the latest case of disaster-related corruption in NTB, which has been struggling to rebuild its infrastructure after multiple earthquakes shook the region in July and August that damaged at least 57,000 houses and displaced over 110,000 people.

In September, a team from the Mataram Prosecutor’s Office arrested a Mataram councillor for allegedly demanding money from a local official who oversaw post-disaster reconstruction projects.

The councillor, Muhir, allegedly demanded money from an official at the Mataram Culture and Education Agency who oversaw a plan to rebuild several elementary and junior high school buildings in the city.

The investigation was conducted after the prosecutor’s office received a tip-off last week from residents who reported that Muhir had allegedly repeatedly asked for his share of the reconstruction projects in Mataram.

Muhir allegedly refused to accept the money at first because it only amounted to Rp 1 million. However, he was later caught red-handed after allegedly accepting Rp 30 million in cash.

The ministry’s NTB office head, Nasruddin, said it would not tolerate corruption, adding that he had reported the case to Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saiffudin.

Disaster funds were prone to corruption due to poor supervision, Indonesia Corruption Watch deputy coordinator Agus Sunaryanto said.

“During disasters, people are mostly focusing on the victims or how to rebuild infrastructure as fast as possible while forgetting about monitoring [the disbursement of disaster funds],” he added. “Such conditions are ripe for self-enrichment.” (ggq)