0 Golkar Officials Refute Link to Simulator Case

Two Golkar Party officials have denied high-profile graft convict Muhammad Nazaruddin’s allegation that they were involved in corruption centering on the procurement of driving simulators for the traffic police. Aziz Syamsuddin, a deputy chairman of the House of Representatives’ Commission III, and Bambang Soesatyo, a member of the same commission, said on Friday that former Democratic Party treasurer Nazaruddin’s allegation a day earlier made no sense. 

Nazaruddin served on the same commission before he was charged with corruption in the awarding of a contract to build an athletes’ village for the 2011 Southeast Asian Games. He is currently serving a seven-year sentence after being convicted in the case last April. While dropping the names of his former House colleagues, Nazaruddin declined to elaborate on their alleged involvement in the driving simulator case. Aziz argued that although Commission III oversaw legal affairs, including matters related to the police, the procurement of equipment, such as the driving simulators, was not something that would have fallen under House oversight. 

“That project had nothing to do with House Commission III and was never discussed by the House,” he said. He added that only if there had been a request from the National Police to increase the funding for the Rp 197 billion ($20.3 million) project would it have come into the House’s purview and there would be a paper trail to prove it. “There would have been a file on it that would have had to be signed by the heads of each party at the commission, and it would have had to be voted on at a plenary session of Commission III,” Aziz said. Bambang also denied Nazaruddin’s allegation, saying separately that the driving simulator purchase was never on the Commission III agenda. 

“The notes and minutes from every meeting and hearing with our partner agencies, including the National Police, are on the record and you can check them for yourself,” he said. “I can assure you that since I started working at Commission III [in 2009], the simulator case has never been discussed.” Speaking late on Thursday night following his questioning by investigators in connection to the simulator project, Nazaruddin claimed that two Golkar legislators and one from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) were complicit in the case. In addition to Aziz and Bambang, Nazaruddin named the PDI-P’s Herman Herry, also from Commission III. 

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has taken the unprecedented step of arresting and charging two police generals for alleged bribery in connection with the awarding of the contracts for the procurement project. They are Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo, the former National Police traffic department chief, and Brig. Gen. Didik Purnomo, the former deputy head. Sukotjo S. Bambang and Budi Susanto, the chief directors of the two companies awarded the contracts, have also been named suspects.

source : the jakarta globe