Saturday 25 October 2008

Al Amin shared backhand deal with Forestry Ministry: Recording

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Al Amin shared backhand deal with Forestry Ministry: Recording

Enny Wulandari , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta Fri, 10/24/2008

Former lawmaker Al Amin Nasution planned to share Rp 100 million (US$10,000) worth of gratification money with Forestry Minister M.S. Kaban in a government procurement deal, a recording played at a Corruption Court hearing revealed on Friday.

According to the team of prosecutors, the taped recording was of a phone conversation between Al Amin and Eko Widjajanto, an official from the Forestry Ministry who was responsible for the procurement of GPS units.

The recording was vaguely audible to the court because of noise interference, but Eko was standing as a witness to clarify the content of the recording.

Eko said Al Amin had been angered when the procurement committee let the company he had championed (PT Almega Geosystem) lose the tender to another company, PT Datascript. At that time, Al Amin was a member of House of Representatives Commission IV overseeing forestry and agriculture issues.

As a result, Al Amin demanded Datascript pay a gratification fee, Eko said, while adding that Datascript had limited options as it also relied on Almega for certain engineering products."Al Amin said he would give the money to MS Kaban.

When I asked him how much and to who else the money would go, Amin said that was his business," Eko testified.Following their phone conversation, Eko said, Al Amin received Rp 100 million from Datascript, Rp 20 million of which was handed to him directly.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/10/24/al-amin-shared-backhand-deal-with-forestry-ministry-recording.html