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Rp 6.8b Embezzlement Claims ‘Trifling’: Ex-Health Minister
Rizky Amelia | February 08, 2012

Former Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari. (Antara File Photo) Former Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari. (Antara File Photo)
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SirAnthonyKnown-Bender
10:14am Feb 9, 2012

Well that's what they do in China, Blighty. I'm not sure that even death is much of a deterrent there though.

blightyboy
10:25pm Feb 8, 2012

facepalm - I don't know how or why, but I know how it can be stopped. When the first convicted corrupter is taken outside of the courthouse, lined up against a wall and shot, then it ends.

blightyboy
10:18pm Feb 8, 2012

devine - not by choice. She probably couldn't find one big enough.

nonredneck
9:01pm Feb 8, 2012

facepalm: 'mind-rot' that's all.

DrDez
8:36pm Feb 8, 2012

Facepalm

How... well it started with the first cabinet (post independence) where a number of former gang leaders and other influential people were rewarded with ministerial or other senior positions - from gangster to minister as it were - the gangs were one of only three organised groups - the other being the mosque and the ragtag militia

Subsequently the foundation of the administration was done by corrupt people or people with vested interests (not the interest of the nation)- nothing has really changed

JPB... please check your history before you start with your hate... Did you know that the First President was kidnapped by the gangsters prior to the declaration of independence and held in Tangerang for about 1 week - goodness knows what was said and done but the result was the creation of the political elite based on aristocracy, religion and gangsters as soon as power was wrested ..

That FP is why. We started off corrupt and in many ways it went downhill from there

Former Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari wrote off at least Rp 6.8 billion ($760,000) in alleged embezzlement under her watch as “small” and “trifling,” after her questioning on Tuesday by antigraft investigators.

“These issues are actually trifling compared to other national issues,” she said upon leaving the Corruption Eradication Commission’s (KPK) office. “Hopefully the KPK doesn’t bore itself with this small matter.”

Siti, who served as minister between 2004 and 2009, was called in by the KPK as a witness against Ratna Dewi Umar, the ministry’s former director of medical services.

Ratna has been named a suspect for her role in various alleged mark-ups and other forms of embezzlement linked to the procurement of equipment in 2007, which are believed to have caused at least Rp 6.8 billion in state losses.

Siti declined to go into detail about her questioning, saying she was only asked by the KPK to “confirm whether this or that was true or not.”

She also denied any knowledge of the alleged graft, saying there had been so many procurement projects under her watch that she could not keep track of all of them.

“There were lots of them, thousands of projects,” she said.

“I’ve been summoned for questioning by the KPK on many occasions, each time to answer for a different case. I believe there are seven cases that they’re investigating. So one by one I’ve had to confirm and clarify that those projects were carried out by [my subordinates] at the ministry.”

However, Indonesia Corruption Watch activist Febri Hendri said that according to ministry documents obtained by the antigraft group, Siti instructed her subordinates in June 2006 to bypass the tender process in a project to procure equipment for the ministry’s crisis response center to deal with a bird flu outbreak.

In a letter addressed to the ministry’s Directorate General of Medical Services, where Ratna worked, Siti said that the project “should be done immediately, so a direct appointment is needed.”

The letter purported to show the former minister arguing that the avian flu outbreak was an extraordinary event threatening many lives.

Rustam Pakaya, the former crisis center head and current human resources director at Dharmais Cancer Hospital, has been named a suspect by the KPK for his role in the project.

The KPK is also investigating a Rp 500 million donation that the ministry made in 2007 to a women’s Koran recital group that was believed to have come from the embezzled money.

Actress Sri Wahyuningsih, who was part of the group and also questioned on Tuesday, said she had been asked whether she knew that the donation came from embezzled funds.

“I wasn’t aware of it at all,” she told reporters. “If I’d known, I wouldn’t have accepted it. The nerve of donating it to a Koran recital group!”

She added that as far as she knew, the money was a contribution from the Health Ministry for a musical event.