"We have held an ethics session asking information..."
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The House of Representatives` Ethics Council said several state-owned company directors had confirmed some lawmakers had asked for fees in connection with the disbursement of state capital injected in their companies.

"According to the state-owned president directors some DPR (House of Representatives) members have indeed demanded fees from one to five percent for the capital injection," the council chairman Muhammad Prakosa said here on Tuesday after meeting with the president directors of PT Merpati Nusantara Airlines, PT PAL Indonesia and PT Garam.

Prakosa said the council had summoned the president directors from the three state-owned companies to clarify recent report from state enterprises minister Dahlan Iskan on extortion by lawmakers on state-owned companies.

"We have held an ethics session asking information from directors of the three state-owned companies," he said.

He said the directors confirmed there had been meetings and requests for fees from DPR members in connection with the disbursement of the injection capital.

Prakosa said they did not have written documents as evidence but had received a lot of text messages and cell phone calls.

He said the text messages and phone calls were not only sent to those summoned by the council but also other directors especially president directors and finance directors.

Asked about the amount of the fees the lawmakers had demanded Prakosa said the directors said between one to five percent.

Based on data of allocation of capital injection in the 2012 budget the capital injected to PT PAL reached Rp648.33 billion and to PT Merpati Rp561 billion.

"We are still investigating whether they have evidence or whether requests are made by lawmakers. This is what we are going to clarify." he said.

Prakosa from the opposition Indonesia Democratic Party Struggle (PDIP) said the council would follow the meeting on Tuesday by summoning the lawmakers concerned.

He said the president directors in the meeting had expressed readiness to be confronted with the lawmakers concerned.
(Uu.R024/H-YH/KR-BSR/B003)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2012