Outgoing KPK Leaders Make Last-Minute Push to Name New Graft Suspects
Jakarta. The outgoing leaders of the Corruption Eradication Commission have made an eleventh-hour decision to charge several suspects in a number of cases before new antigraft commissioners take over.
Yuyuk Andrianti, a spokeswoman for the body known as the KPK, said antigraft investigators had charged Andi Zulkarnaen “Choel” Mallarangeng, the brother of former sports minister Andi Alfian Mallarangeng, for his alleged involvement in the 2010 bid-rigging and bribery case surrounding the construction of the Hambalang sports complex in Bogor, south of Jakarta.
The former minister is now serving four years in prison for taking $839,000 from a company called Global Daya Manunggal, one of the subcontractors awarded the project, through Choel, who also met and spoke with other suspects in the case on his brother's behalf, the KPK alleges.
“Investigators have found at least two pieces of evidence that were sufficient to name A.Z.M., a private businessman, as a suspect,” Yuyuk said.
The KPK has also charged Dudung Purwadi, the former president director of Duta Graha Indah, on suspicion of bribery surrounding the firm's contract to build an athletes' village for the 2011 Southeast Asian Games in Palembang, South Sumatra.
The same case brought down formerc, who was convicted in 2013 of taking Rp 4.6 billion ($332,730) in bribes from Mohammad El Idris, the marketing manager of DGI.
Yuyuk said the KPK had also charged Freddy Lumban Tobing, the director of private firm Cahaya Prima Cemerlang, in connection with irregularities surrounding the 2007 procurement of laboratory equipment and chemicals by the Health Ministry to combat the avian flu epidemic at the time.
According to the KPK, Freddy inflated the price of the equipment by nearly 100 percent, causing Rp 12.3 billion in losses to the state, some of which was used to provide kickbacks to ministry officials.
The spokeswoman said the decision to charge the three was made on Wednesday last week.
Also last week, the KPK named state port operator Pelindo II chief executive Richard J. Lino a suspect for corruption in the procurement of cranes.
The KPK on Monday welcomed a new batch of commissioners.
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