"As one of our deputy chiefs, Chandra Hamzah, has stated, the KPK did not only bear the cost of chartering a plane," KPK spokesman Johan Budi said here on Friday.
He said the cost of bringing Nazaruddin home also included the the accommodation and transportation of members of the joint team which picked up Nazaruddin in Colombia.
"So, it is not totally true if it is said that the KPK only spent Rp4 billion (the plane`s charter fee) to repatriate Nazaruddin," he said.
Nazaruddin is being flown back to Indonesia using a hired jet plane with a capacity for 12 passengers, including the pilot and co-pilot.
Earlier, Cabinet Secretary Dipo Alam denied a report that the funds amounting to Rp4 billion used to pick up Nazaruddin from Colombia came from the government.
"The funds came from the KPK, not from the police or the prosecutor`s office," he said.
Dipo said it was wrong to assume that the government was spending too much money or being extravagant in picking up Nazaruddin.
"(I would stress that ) the funds came from the KPK, while the KPK is not a government institution but a state institution," he said.
Graft suspect Muhammad Nazaruddin together with the joint team of investigators had left Bogota, Colombia, since 6.a.m Western Indonesian time (WIB) and is expected to arrive in Indonesia on Saturday afternoon, anti-graft body spokesman said.
Nazaruddin, who is also member of Commission VII energy, mineral resources, research and technology affairs of the DPR, is a graft suspect linked to the construction of a SEA Games athlete house in Palembang, South Sumatra.
He fled to Singapore a day before the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) asked the ministry of justice and human rights to issue a travel ban for him on May 24.
He had been to several countries before he was caught with his wife and several other people at 2 am local time in Cartagena, Colombia, on Monday.
(Uu.A014/HAJM/S012)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
