Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Banten
The Banten administration on Saturday warned its officials they risked being implicated in corruption cases by not adhering to the law and following procedures.
"I always remind officials to enact their authorities in line with the procedures and carry out all tasks according to the regulations, but some of them fail to do so ... they end up dealing with corruption investigations," Banten deputy governor Masduki said Saturday.
Masduki made the remark after prosecutors named three officials of the Banten Health Agency and two businesses as suspects in the alleged embezzlement of Rp 22 billion in state funds allocated for the construction of Balaraja General Hospital in Tangerang municipality.
The suspects are Djaja Budihardja, head of the provincial health agency, M. Natsir, the agency's commitment maker, Dimas Widiyatmo, head of the hospital project, contractor John Chaidir, director of PT Glindingmas Wahana Nusa and Ade Siswanto, project consultant and supervisor of PT Cipta Sarana.
Tangerang prosecutors have not arrested any of the suspects, who would be charged for violating the Anti-corruption Law, which carries a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison.
Chief prosecutor Agus Sutoto said the investigators were trying to find out if more people were involved in the case.
"The team plans to question Tangerang regency administration assistant Mas Iman Kusnadar and TB Chaeri Wardana, younger brother of Banten Governor Ratu Atut Chosiah as witnesses in the graft case," he said Saturday.
The Banten provincial administration in 2005 spent Rp 6 billion to acquire six hectares of land for the hospital and disbursed Rp 14 billion for construction work in 2006.
The Health Ministry disbursed Rp 2 billion early this year to procure health equipment.
However, the construction of the hospital has been neglected since 2007. Tangerang regent Ismet Iskandar said his administration planned to take over construction work.
Masduki said the administration would not replace the implicated officials.
"It's a long legal process. We'll wait and see whether they are guilty as charged."
Banten provincial administration secretary Muhadi called on officials "to take precautions and to be careful so they would not be implicated in any corruption cases".
No comments:
Post a Comment