Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The corruption case involving Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives (DPR) Taufik Kurniawan serves another big blow to House reputation.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Tuesday named Taufik from the National Mandate Party (PAN) a corruption suspect.

He was charged with accepting graft to help pass the budget of Special Allocation Fund for the Kebumen district.

KPK already arrested Kebumen Regent Yahya Fuad the main suspect in the case.

The Forum of People Concerned With the Indonesian Parliament (Formappi) said the involvement of Taufik in the corruption case would further degrade the House.

Taufik is the second Parliament leader involved in corruption case after former speaker Setya Novanto, now serving jail term for e-identity card scandal," Formappi chairman Lucius Karus said.

"A man , who by his colleagues in the House has been elected deputy House speaker turned out to be so low in integrity, betraying the people.

"How come the bunch of lawmakers, who like to be called honorable, have elected men with poor integrity to become their leaders," Lucius said.

He said corrupt lawmakers have continued to bring shame on the nation , adding involvement of lawmakers in corruption case is almost always related to projects in the regions .

"They collude with heads of regional administrations, business leaders or other local leaders," he said.

The same method have been practiced in many corruption cases involving lawmakers, he said.

"But it is very difficult to understand when a House leader is also involved . It is bad and embarrassing, a man in highly respectable position should steal the state fund" he said.

Lucius went on to say that Taufik is a candidate in the forthcoming legislative election, adding the legal case should put him out of contention.

"With so many corruption cases involving budget funds it is necessary to develop distrust against all present members of the Parliament. I think all lawmakers could be involved up to a certain extent, only there is not enough evidence to charge them with complicity," he said.

Earlier KPK already asked the Immigration Office to prevent Taufik from leaving Indonesia

Taufik was implicated in the corruption case by Yahya Fuad who told the court in his trial on July 2, 2018 , that he met and discussed with Taufik the budget for the Special Allocation Fund (DAK.

The meeting took place in Semarang and Jakarta, said Yahya, who was later convicted and is now serving a 4 year jail term for graft in a number of projects.

He said Taufik demanded an "obligation" of 5 percent if the DAK budget of Rp100 billion, was approved and available for the district of Kebumen.

The "fee" was given twice through a courier of Taufik in Semarang, Yahya told the court.

Taufik allegedly already received a total of Rp4.8 billion from the fee of 5 percent of Kebumen`s DAK budget of around Rp106.067 billion in 2017.

PT Tradha, which is owned by Yahya is charged with money laundering by KPK. PT Trada allegedly used five other companies to illegally win 8 projects in the district of Kebumen in 2016-2017 valued at Rp51 billion.

PT Tradha also was charged with accepting illegal fee from contractors for projects linked to the Kebumen district administration valued at Rp3 billion.



Reporting by Rangga Pandu Asmara Jingga
Editing by A Saragih




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Editor: Yosep Hariyadi
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