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An employee at the Foreign Ministry told prosecutors on Thursday that Rp 1 billion ($110,000) in cash from the inflation of travel costs for diplomats was prepared for then Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda, although he could offer no proof to back the claim.

“The Rp 1 billion in cash was prepared in a cardboard box at the request of [the ministry’s then financial bureau chief] Ade Wismar Wijaya. My client was told [by Wismar] that the money would be handed to the foreign minister,” said Irfan Fahmi, a lawyer for Adang Sujana, who worked at the financial bureau.

Adang was questioned as a witness on Thursday by prosecutors investigating the alleged inflation of travel costs at the ministry.

“The money was collected by Ade [Wismar]’s secretary, Asep Sarwedi,” said the lawyer, who accompanied his client during the questioning at the Attorney General’s Office.

Irfan claimed that after the case broke, Adang was ordered by Wismar to destroy the receipts and all other evidence related to the money trail.

He said that Adang was also asked to prepare Rp 25 million a month for the ministry’s secretary general, Imron Cotan, a practice he said began in 2008.

Ade Sudirman, a former ministry official who has been named a suspect in the case, had earlier claimed that Rp 1 billion from the scam flowed to the former minister and that another Rp 2 billion went to Imron, who was recently appointed ambassador to China.

“Now we have two witnesses indicating the money flow, so it already meets the legal requirement if prosecutors have the will to expand the investigation to high-level figures in the ministry,” said Holidin, a lawyer for Sudirman.

The Attorney General’s Office had earlier dismissed the claim by Sudirman, saying that testimony from a single witness alone could not serve as the basis for a criminal investigation.

Imron also appeared at the Attorney General’s Office on Thursday for questioning in relation to the case.

“My questioning was a closed-door session, so I cannot tell you what we discussed inside,” Imron told reporters as he left the AGO at 6 p.m. after nine hours of questioning.

“If you want information about the case, ask prosecutors,” he replied when asked about the monthly payments of Rp 25 million he is alleged to have received.

The AGO said it would continue its investigation based “on the existing laws and procedures,” and would not rush to conclusions simply because two people had alleged the involvement of high-ranking officials in the case.

“It’s only the first few weeks and our investigation will develop according to what we find later,” Arminsyah, the AGO’s director for graft investigation, said when asked about the alleged involvement of Hassan and Imron.

Imron was summoned on Thursday because “as an official who held budgetary power, he had the last say in the appointment of seven travel companies as the ministry’s partners,” Arminsyah told reporters, declining to say if Imron was a possible suspect.

“His interrogation could not be concluded today. We plan to question him again on Monday or Tuesday next week,” he said.

Sudirman claimed last month that in August last year he was ordered by Wismar to provide Rp 1 billion to help Hassan buy a house.

He also claimed that Wismar ordered him to prepare Rp 1.2 billion for Imron in January 2008 and another Rp 1.15 billion in December 2008.