Welcome Guest   |  Login   |   Signup
JG Logo
Sat, May 26, 2012
Archive Search

Police Admit to Receiving Freeport ‘Lunch Money’
Farouk Arnaz | October 28, 2011

Armed police officers patrol the streets of Jayapura, Papua, on Monday. National Police Chief Gen. Timur Pradopo admitted on Friday that his officers in the restive region receive funds, which he dubs as Armed police officers patrol the streets of Jayapura, Papua, on Monday. National Police Chief Gen. Timur Pradopo admitted on Friday that his officers in the restive region receive funds, which he dubs as 'lunch money,' from PT Freeport Indonesia. (Antara Photo)
Share This Page
35
24
0
6
Share with google+ :


Post a comment
Please login to post comment

Comments

Darwinista
9:44am Oct 29, 2011

Police and army were active in extorting Freeport for protection money in a similar way that many shady organizations do that for shops and so on. An audit doesnot legitimize this, since an auditor is not a detective. It is so typical that the head of police doesnot understand what corruption is and what not. How can you ever expect that corruption will be rooted out in this way?

exbrit
6:35am Oct 29, 2011

Wow. Don't tell me that there is corruption in Indonesia. What a surprise.

DrDez
8:27pm Oct 28, 2011

Roland

The govt sets the min wage

If Freeport bow then the govt may be faced with 100,000,000 people saying where is my 500% increase (this is upside down world) ergo the destruction of the nation

Re meal money - IAs Patralis says this is not an illegal practice and $74m over 15 years is bugger all

Timur cares not - he possibly gets his fruit direct from the wholesaler


Roderick
8:10pm Oct 28, 2011

I wonder if these payments should be subject to Indonesian taxation ( such as income tax ) and whether the individual police officers receiving these payments have actually declared this income source to the Indonesian tax authorities and paid the correct tax on each allowance they have received. If not, then perhaps a tax audit should be conducted into the amounts paid by Freeport to each police officer who has received these "pay offs"


Roland
7:33pm Oct 28, 2011

PS - I want to quote from the "other" news site:

...the money given by Freeport, which according to Kontras human rights watchdog was Rp 1.4 million per officer per day, was handed directly to officers in Papua." Quote End

This would count for approx. 40 Million per month and officer. Hard to stay objective there.

So, how much was the daily pay for miners until before the strike? And how much are they are asking now? I think I read their demand is around $70 per day after negotiations, approximately 50 percent of what Freeport pays daily to officers of the law beside their regular salary...


The police admitted on Friday what much of the country has long known — that they accepted millions of dollars from Freeport Indonesia to provide security for the miner’s operations in Papua. 

National Police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo called the payments “lunch money” paid in addition to state-allocated security funding. “It was operational funding given directly to police personnel to help them make ends meet,” he said. 

He also claimed it was normal practice for the police to receive money in the course of duty. “If, for instance, the party being secured offers to pay lunch money to the officers, and if the conditions of the job are particularly difficult, then I believe we can account for that money,” Timur said. 

Timur was responding to reports from the human rights group Imparsial that the police received $64 million from Freeport between 1995 and 2004. 

“That money is audited, OK? Just ask the police’s operational assistant,” Timur said. 

Security forces have long been understood to be receiving direct payments from the miner to help guard its massive Grasberg copper and gold mine. 

The mine and its workers have been the target of frequent attacks, mostly blamed by police on the separatist Free Papua Organization (OPM). 

But rights activists have also accused it of using security forces to quell local opposition to its mining operations and crack down on worker protests. 

The mine is in the grip of a massive workers’ strike that began on Sept. 15. On Oct. 10, two people died in a clash between police and striking workers. 

Timur denied that the money from Freeport had made the force subservient to the miner, insisting that the payments went no higher than to personnel on the ground. 

In its 2009 report on “Working Toward Sustainable Development,” Freeport revealed that it contributed millions of dollars toward “government-provided” security operations near its Papua mine: $10 million for 2009 alone. 

“This supplemental support consists of various infrastructure and other costs, such as food, housing, fuel, travel, vehicle repairs, allowances to cover incidental and administrative costs, and community assistance programs conducted by the military and police to promote harmony with local communities,” Freeport said in the report. 

In the wake of Timur’s admission, legislators said they would summon the police chief to clarify the issue. Benny K. Harman, chairman of House of Representatives Commission III, which oversees legal affairs, said if the money was given directly to personnel — as Timur claimed — then “that’s reasonable.” 

However, fellow Democrat Saan Mustofa advised against such a relationship and the image it created. “Freeport shouldn’t have paid the money, even if it was to individual officers,” he said. “It could be accused of bribery.” 
Additional reporting by Markus Junianto Sihaloho