Home minister accused of nepotism

JAKARTA. Former member of the House of Representatives budgetary committee and graft convict Muhammad Nazaruddin claimed on Tuesday that Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi had a close relationship with the winner of the e-KTP project bid.

Nazaruddin's lawyer Elsa Syarief said on Tuesday Gamawan was a “close colleague” of Paulus Tannos, the owner of PT Sandipala Putra, the eventual winner of the Rp 6 trillion (US$523 million) e-KTP project bid.

“His closeness [with Gamawan] is already clear by looking at some power plant projects in West Sumatra [which were handled by him],” she told reporters at the Corruption Eradication Commission's (KPK) headquarters in Kuningan, South Jakarta.

“Besides controlling the e-KTP project, Paulus also admitted he took control of distributing kickbacks [from the project].”

Elsa said Gamawan had befriended Paulus since the former had become West Sumatra governor in 2005.

She added Paulus bought PT Sandipala Putra from its previous owner Harry Sapto for Rp 15 billion before entering the tender process at the ministry, which was won by a consortium of five companies, including state-owned printing company PNRI, PT Sucofindo, PT LEN Industri and PT Quadra Solutions.

Nazaruddin previously said there was a 49 percent markup in the project, amounting to Rp 2.5 trillion, of which Rp 1.77 trillion was distributed in kickbacks to the House, the ministry as well as the winners of the tender.

Nazaruddin said he acted as the executor of the project in the House.

Gamawan, meanwhile, rebuffed claims of collusion in the e-KTP project, and said he did not know any of the tender winners, let alone negotiate with them. (The Jakarta Post)