JAKARTA (Yosefardi) – Abraham Samad, the Chief of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), hinted that the KPK will soon name a senior official as suspect in the graft case of the haj pilgrimage fund managed under the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
Abraham firmly said that within the next one or two weeks, KPK will announce the suspects in the case.
KPK had since last year conducted a study over the management of the haj pilgrimage fund found the potential fund mismanagement.
KPK had questioned witnesses for the case. They are Minister of Religious Affairs Suryadharma Ali (who is also Chairman of PPP), Vice Minister of Religious Affairs Nasaruddin Umar, Director General for the haj and minor haj (umrah) at the Religious Affairs’s Ministry Anggito Abimanyu, PPP lawmaker Hasrul Azwar, and PKS lawmaker Jazuli Juwaini.
While commenting to the alleged irregularities in haj pilgrimage fund management, Minister of Religious Affairs Suryadharma Ali, previously said he lets the public to prove the allegations and is ready to resign if later the irregularities is proven.
The alleged irregularities in haj pilgrimage fund management emerged last year after the Anti-Money Laundering Agency PPATK disclosed its findings. Based on audit report, PPATK found mismanagement of Rp80 trillion haj pilgrimage fund for 2004-2012 period.
PPATK Chairman Muhammad Yusuf also questioned about poor haj facilities provided by the Government which is not worth compared to the haj pilgrimage cost paid by each Indonesian pilgrim.
In 2012, each of the total 200,000 Indonesian pilgrims paid Rp33.3 million (US$3,617). Malaysian pilgrims only paid Rp29.9 million (US$3,094) but they received better services and facilities from the government. (haryantos@yosefardi.biz)