Finance Minister Summoned for Questioning in Wa Ode Probe

The Corruption Eradication Commission will summon Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo for questioning in relation to the graft case against lawmaker Wa Ode Nurhayati, antigraft commission spokesman Johan Budi said on Tuesday.

“We will summon the Finance Minister as a witness for the suspect,” Johan said.

Wa Ode is accused of taking Rp 6.9 billion ($752,000) in bribes from three districts in Aceh — Aceh Besar, Pidie and Bener Meriah — to get them Rp 40 billion in allotments from funds in the Infrastructure Development Acceleration (PPID) program in 2011.

Johan said the summons was requested by Wa Ode and added that the letter would be sent today.

Wa Ode has argued that the finance minister knew that the authority to allot the PPID was in the hands of the government, not the House of Representatives.

“That means the government has control over which region gets an allotment and how much that allotment is for,” she said on Monday. “I am only a member of the House Budget Committee.”

When the 2011 budget was announced, the three regions did not get the allotments they were expecting and demanded their money — which was allegedly given to Wa Ode — be returned.

Wa Ode returned Rp 4 billion of the Rp 6.9 billion she allegedly received.

Agus on Tuesday responded to reports that the KPK was planning to summon him for questioning by publicly airing doubts about whistleblower Wa Ode’s integrity.

“I am asking whether Wa Ode has integrity. If she does, then I am prepared to become a witness, but if not, I do not want to become one,” Agus said while at the Constitutional Court.

He said he had not yet been approached by Wa Ode, who is also a member of House Commission VII on energy and mineral resources, to testify in her favor.

The House Budget Committee initially said that 395 of the 491 districts and municipalities would receive funds from the PPID in 2011, but later it unilaterally reduced the number of recipients to 298.

The Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) has said that the cutting of the DPID recipients list violated procedures because the House Budget Committee ignored a 2010 regulation by the finance minister, No. 61 on the Fiscal and Poverty Index for the Regions.

Wa Ode is taking the forum’s argument as a basis to ask that Agus be questioned as a witness in her favor.

Johan said that the KPK was expecting to begin preparing the indictment for Wa Ode next week.