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Jakarta.  The Corruption Eradication Commission on Thursday summoned the new Indonesian ambassador to China, Imron Cotan, as a witness in a $795,000 embezzlement case linked to the 2003 renovation of Indonesia’s embassy in Singapore.

Johan Budi, spokesman for the commission, or KPK, said Imron was called to testify about graft suspect Sujadnan Parnohadiningrat, a former ambassador to the United States.

At the time, Sujadnan was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ secretary general, while Imron was one of Sujadnan’s directors.

The KPK alleges that Sujadnan received 200,000 Singapore dollars ($146,000) to speed up a renovation project at the Indonesian embassy in Singapore.

Sujadnan also allegedly overlooked the fact that former Ambassador Muhammad Slamet Hidayat and his treasurer Erizal inflated the project’s budget by as 1.2 million Singapore dollars.

“We summoned Imron Cotan today to provide us with details of the project,” Johan said.

Imron declined to comment when he arrived at KPK headquarters in South Jakarta.

Slamet and Erizal were sentenced to three years in prison by the Anti-Corruption Court in December 2008. Both men alleged that Sujadnan received the money during a visit to Singapore to inspect the project in 2003.

Slamet and Erizal, the court ruled, had kept 280,000 Singapore dollars and 120,000 Singapore dollars, respectively, while the remaining embezzled funds were distributed throughout the embassy and to officials at the ministry.

“Sujadnan must be held responsible,” Slamet said last week when he was quizzed by KPK investigators.

The KPK earlier questioned Hendaryudo, an internal auditor at the ministry. He told investigators that in 2006 he had found documents and receipts that seemed to prove that 200,000 Singapore dollars had been given to Sujadnan that year.

He also found that only 2.1 million Singapore dollars, out of 3.3 million allocated for the project, were given to the contractor, Singapore-based contractor Ben Soon Heng Enterprises.

Officials from the company have said Slamet and Erizal had asked them to inflate the budget in exchange for naming the company without going through a proper tender process.

Sujadnan was only named a suspect early this year, after his term as an ambassador ended, and more than two years after the KPK first began investigating the renovation case. The delay has raised eyebrows.

“The timing was merely a coincidence. It was only recently that we obtained enough evidence to charge the suspect,” KPK deputy chairman Bibit Samad Riyanto said.

Imron is also being investigated by the Attorney General’s Office in connection with a budget inflation scandal linked to the purchase of airplane tickets for diplomatic travel between 2007 and 2009.

At least three ministry officials have been charged in that case, with the AGO estimating Rp 30 billion in state losses.

Indonesia Corruption Watch, one of the country’s leading antigraft watchdogs, has alleged that Imron, who succeeded Sujadnan as secretary general in 2007, received a pay-off to overlook irregularities in travel expenses.