Papua Police are determined to seriously tackle rampant corruption practice in the Papau and West Papua provinces.
On Tuesday, Papua Police’s directorate of special crimes questioned Maybrat Regent Bernard Sagrim on his capacity as a witness in the alleged Rp 3 billion (US$310 million) corruption case.
Accompanied by his lawyer Petrus Ohoitimur, Sagrim was interrogated with 40 questions from 9 a.m. local time.
Director
of Papua Police’s special crimes Sr. Comr. Setyo Budiyanto explained
that the misused funds were taken from grants amounting to Rp 15 billion
awarded to West Papua province and Sorong Regency.
“After being
audited by the Development Finance Controller [BPKP], it was found out
Rp 3 billion of the funds was unaccounted for,” Setyo said, adding that
the funds were initially intended to finance the government management
in Maybrat, which had just been separated from Sorong regency in 2009.
Papua
Police chief Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian has instructed all police forces
covering Papua and West Papua to get serious in their dealings with
corrupt cases by November and December this year.
In response to
his commitment to eradicate corruption in Papua, the National Police
headquarters has provided Rp 2.8 billion (US$311,000) in funds and
personnel backup to conduct joint investigations.
In 2011, Papua
Police were able to uncover 28 graft cases and returned Rp 5.3 billion
in lost funds to the state, and as of October this year, they handled 37
corrupt cases and saved Rp 120 billion of funds.
The
redistribution of wealth has failed to materialize in Papua as most of
the major funds channeled by the central government to Indonesia’s
easternmost provinces have been wasted — or embezzled by the local
elites — as is evident by the fact that Papua and West Papua remain the
most disadvantaged regions.
In connection with the alleged fund
misuse in Maybrat, the Papua Police have named Sepran Souw, a member of
staff at the Maybrat regency.
“Sepran has been charged under
Article 2 and 3 of Law No. 31/1999, which has been renews with Law No.
20/2001 on corruption with maximum jail sentence of 20 years,” Setyo
said.
Setyo said further that the Papua Police had actually
planned to question the Maybrat regent for a long time, but the plan was
hindered by the fact that they had to ask for permission from the
President. However, the limitation was already omitted after the
Judicial Court issued a verdict that there is no need for all law
enforcers to ask for permission from the President any longer. “This
will speed up the investigation,” he added.
Sagrim went to the Papua Police headquarters in Jayapura to meet his summons.
His lawyer Petrus denied his client had any involvement in the graft case.
“The
graft case has nothing to do with my client because each official has
his or her own responsibility. Even though one of my client’s
subordinates had been named as a suspect, his responsibility should not
necessarily be burdened to his superior,” he said.
Petrus said
that his client had cooperated with the police by meeting the summons.
“My client was questioned as a witness,” he added.