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A suspect in the Foreign Ministry travel-expense scandal has told investigators that his superior ordered that evidence in the case be destroyed before prosecutors began investigating the case.

Former ministry official Ade Sudirman wrote that the evidence proved that money was diverted to ministry officials.

Documents detailing a total of Rp 3.8 billion [$418,000] were destroyed on the orders of the finance bureau chief — Ade Wismar Wijaya,” wrote in a Feb. 10 letter to the ministry’s inspectorate general.

A copy of the letter was given to the Jakarta Globe.

Sudirman also alleged that Wismar, also a suspect in the case, told him to provide at least Rp 3 billion in bogus travel advances for senior ministry officials.

Prosecutors have treated the accusations with skepticism, however, because Sudirman has provided no evidence.

Wismar’s lawyer, Edy Dwi Martono, could not be reached for comment.

Edy had earlier denied Sudirman’s claims, although he did say that his client had returned Rp 3 billion to the state coffers. The lawyer accused Sudirman of using a portion of the funds to finance attempts to run in local elections in Banten.

In the Feb. 10 letter, Sudirman also claimed that he knew of a further Rp 14 billion allegedly embezzled by ministry officials, but he provided no details.

An internal probe by the inspectorate general put the estimated losses from the inflated travel-expenses claims between in 2008 and 2009 at about Rp 20 billion.

The Attorney General’s Office has said that state losses could be even higher because it believes the scheme had been running since 2006.

While four other suspects, including Wismar, have been detained by the AGO, Sudirman, 56, has not yet been arrested due to poor health.

“He is suffering acute diabetes that makes him unable to walk,” his lawyer, Holidin, told the Jakarta Globe over the weekend. “But prosecutors questioned him at home recently after seeing his condition themselves.”

Sudirman’s job at the ministry’s financial bureau was to verify bills submitted by officials for reimbursement.

Other suspects in the scandal are Syarwanie Soenie, a former ministry official who is president director of travel company PT Indowanua Inti Sentosa, which has been implicated; and Syarif Syam Arman and Gusti Putu Adnyana, both of whom are former treasurers at the ministry.

Wismar has not denied having a stake in Indowanua, which had provided air tickets to the ministry since 1984. He reportedly bought into the company in 2004, when he was posted to Washington.

Sudirman is not the only ministry official who has alleged that higher-level officials received a portion of the diverted funds.

Adang Sujana, who works as a teller at the ministry’s finance bureau, said through his lawyer that Wismar asked him to prepare funds that were subsequently collected by Wismar’s secretary, Asep Sarwedi. After the case became public, Adang said Wismar ordered him to destroy the receipts and other evidence.

Adang was questioned by prosecutors recently as a witness.