West Sumba District Head Detained for Corruption
Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara. Authorities in East Nusa Tenggara province have arrested a local district chief for allegedly embezzling Rp 186 million ($14,120) from the district budget, becoming the third current or former regional head arrested for corruption this month.
Ridwan Angsar, a spokesman for the provincial attorney’s office, said investigators had detained West Sumba district head Jubilate Pieter Pandango at a prison in Kupang, the provincial capital, on Tuesday following his discharge from a hospital, where he had been seeking treatment for diabetes over the past week.
Prosecutors have charged Jubilate with allegedly marking up the cost of motorcycles for the district administration by Rp 186 million and embezzling the difference. He is also accused of rigging the procurement by appointing a winner instead of farming it out through a tender.
Prosecutors named Jubilate a suspect on May 8 but were unable to take him into custody immediately, with his doctors insisting that he required medical treatment for his diabetes.
“He is better now after undergoing the treatment, so today we’ve taken him to prison,” Ridwan said.
Jubilate is the latest regional head in Indonesia jailed this month on suspicion of graft. Last Thursday, police in Aceh province detained the former head of Southwest Aceh district, Akmal Ibrahim, for allegedly corruption in the allocation of land for a palm oil refinery, which police claim caused Rp 746 million in losses to the district administration.
On the same day, officials in Papua province arrested the head of Sarmi district, Mesak Manibor, for allegedly embezzling Rp 4.5 billion from district funds. The money had been allocated to build a security fence around the district chief’s official residence, but Mesak reportedly used it for refurbishments to his own private house.
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