KPK sets sight on Finance Ministry

JAKARTA. The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) questioned Deputy Finance Minister Anny Ratnawati on Wednesday as a witness in the graft probe into the construction of the Hambalang sports complex in Bogor, West Java.

KPK spokesman Johan Budi said Anny was summoned because she had served as the Finance Ministry’s director general for budgeting when the go-ahead was given for the Hambalang project.

KPK investigators also questioned the ministry’s former secretary-general, Mulia Nasution.

Speaking after his questioning session, Mulia said that the KPK investigators had asked about details on the disbursement of the funds.

Mulia said he only submitted the budget proposal to Anny as the ministry’s director general for budgeting.

Mulia declined to comment when asked about indications that an abuse of power had taken place at the Finance Ministry in the budget allocation for Hambalang.

“We initiated bureaucratic reform in 2006, so we always carry out our work based on rules and regulations, including in our budgeting mechanism,” he said.

The ministry and the House of Representatives originally agreed to build the Hambalang sports complex as a modest single-year project worth Rp 125 billion (US$12.97 million) during former youth and sports minister Adhyaksa Dault’s tenure, which ran from 2004 to 2009.

At that time, the House still held the budget allocation for the project because the ministry had yet to acquire the land-use certificate (HGU) that was owned by Probosutejdo, the half-brother of late president Soeharto.

When Andi Mallarangeng became youth and sports minister in 2010, however, the project was transformed into a multi-year, mega-budget project worth Rp 1.17 trillion. The House and the Finance Ministry approved the revised budget allocation.

On Tuesday Andi’s brother, Golkar politician Rizal Mallarangeng, held a press conference to reassert his sibling’s innocence in the case.

Rizal maintained that Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo was implicated in the case as he had approved the Hambalang budget despite irregularities in the budget proposal.

According to Rizal, Agus approved the project although the project proposal did not bear Andi’s signature. The proposal was only signed by the ministry’s then secretary, Wafid Muharam.

Rizal argued that a multi-year project could only be approved if the budget proposal was signed by a minister.

He also suggested that Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto may be involved in the case for giving technical recommendations on the project without Andi’s knowledge.

Also on Wednesday, the KPK questioned two businessmen as part of its preliminary investigation into allegations of the disbursement of illicit funds sourced from the project.

Johan said the antigraft body had summoned Ronny Wijaya, an executive with PT Dutasari Citralaras, and Kurniawan Purwo, a former executive with PT Adhi Karya. (Rabby Pramudatama/ The Jakarta Post)