Former SKK Migas Chief Sentenced to 7 Years in Prison for Graft

Jakarta Globe, Novianti Setuningsih, Apr 29, 2014

Rudi Rubiandini, former head of Indonesian energy regulator SKKMigas,
 speaks during an interview with Reuters at his office in Jakarta in this March 6,
2013 file photo.(Reuters Photo/Enny Nuraheni)

Jakarta. The Anti-Corruption Court sentenced Rudi Rubiandini to seven years in prison on Tuesday, after the former head of oil-and-gas regulator SKK Migas was found guilty of accepting bribes from energy companies.

“The defendant has been found guilty of corruption and money laundering,” presiding judge Amin Ismanto told the court on Tuesday.

The court also ordered Rudi to pay Rp 200 million in fines or serve an additional three months in prison.

Rudi cried in court when the verdict was read. He said he accepted the decision and would not file an appeal.

Judge Purwono Edi Santosa said Rudi had received S$200,000 ($159,591) and $900,000 from Widodo Ratanachaitong, the president director of Kernel Oil, and from Fossus Energy, through Kernel’s operational director, Simon Gunawan Tanjaya.

Rudi was also found guilty of receiving $522,500 from Artha Meris Simbolon, the director of Kaltim Parna Industri, a manufacturer of ammonia.

Rudi allegedly used the money buy a Volvo XC90 worth Rp 1.6 billion ($142,400); a house in Tebet, South Jakarta, worth Rp 2 billion; a Rolex Datejust watch worth $11,500 for his wife Elin Herlina; a Citizen Echo Drive Saphire watch for himself; and a Toyota Camry worth Rp 669 million.

Prosecutors had sought 10 years for Rudi, who had admitted taking bribes but denied the money-laundering charges.

In a separate trial, Rudi’s golf trainer, Deviardi, was found guilty of delivering the bribe money and sentenced to serve four years and six months in prison.

Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court presiding judge Matheus Samiaji said the trainer was also guilty of money laundering on Rudi’s behalf.

Prosecutors said Deviardi had taken cash from Widodo and Artha and delivered it to Rudi.

Former Bandung Mayor to Serve 10 Years for Bribery

Jakarta Globe, Apr 28, 2014

Bandung Mayor Dada Rosada outside the Corruption Eradication Commission
headquarters in Jakarta on April 4, 2013. (JG Photo/Afriadi Hikmal).

Jakarta. The Bandung Anti-Corruption Court on Monday sentenced former Bandung mayor Dada Rosada to serve ten years in prison for bribing judges.

“[We are] declaring the defendant validly and convincingly guilty of… corruption,” presiding judge Nurhakim said at a hearing, as quoted by Indonesian news portal Detik.com. “[The court] hands down a ten-year prison sentence, minus served time.”

The court also imposed a fine of Rp 600 million ($51,600) or an additional three months.

Prosecutors had demanded a fifteen-year sentence.

Dada was found guilt of paying off District Court judges to rig the trial of seven city officials found guilty of embezzling approximately $7 million in social-aid funds intended to help the city’s poorest residents. He was also found guilty of paying bribes to the West Java High Court.

Dada colluded in the payoffs with Former Bandung Secretary Edi Siswadi, who was sentenced to serve eight years in prison and fined Rp 500 million ($43,800) by a panel of judges at the West Java Corruption Court on Thursday. Former district court judge Setyabudi Tejocahyono was found guilty of taking bribe money and sentenced to serve 12 years.

Former Bandung Asset Management Agency head Herry Nurhayat is awaiting trail for his alleged role in the graft.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said it caught Setyabudi red-handed taking bribe money from businessman Toto Hutagalung, a close friend of Dada, in March of 2013.

Indonesian military chief in flashy watch row insists his timepiece is a Chinese-made fake

Head of Indonesian army smashes watch in front of reporters saying it only cost HK$3,333 and is just one of his vast collection of fake luxury timepieces he owns

South China Morning Post – AFP, 25 April, 2014

Indonesian military chief General Moeldoko shows his luxury watch, which
he claims is a Chinese-made fake, to journalists in Jakarta. Photo: AFP

Indonesia’s top general came under fire on Friday after rejecting claims he had been pictured wearing a luxury Swiss watch and insisting that the timepiece was a Chinese-made fake.

A Singapore website reported this week General Moeldoko was wearing a watch from the Richard Mille brand’s Felipe Massa collection worth more than US$100,000 during a recent interview with a broadcaster in the city-state.

However the general, who goes by one name, angrily hurled the watch to the ground when confronted by reporters about the claims, insisting he would not have done so if it was genuine.

“Just watch me, so you know I am not lying,” he was quoted as saying in local media before throwing the timepiece onto the floor.

Scepticism has greeted the general's claims collects fake copies
of expensive Swiss watches. Photo: AFP

The general said it was a convincing imitation he had bought for just five million rupiah (HK$3,333). He also told reporters it was just one of large collection of fakes that he owned.

However the claim was met with scepticism and anger in a country where millions live in grinding poverty and there is much sensitivity about high-ranking officials leading luxurious lifestyles.

“Your watch is so expensive general! Compared to the salary of a worker,” said Lucky Harri on Twitter.

Indonesia’s founding principles “which discourage people from living in luxury, have been forgotten by the general”, commented Pakde Djojo on the microblogging site.

One comment on the Jakarta Globe newspaper website noted: “I think a general would not wear counterfeit watches.”

Probe in e-KTP Program Finds Loss of Rp 1.12t for Govt: KPK

Jakarta Globe, Rizky Amelia & Markus Junianto Sihaloho, Apr 23, 2014

The program that gives out the electronic identity card, known as e-KTP, is at the
center of an investigation of alleged mark-up in costs. (JG Photo/Dhana Kencana)

Jakarta. The nation’s anti-graft agency says that the government program to give each citizen an electronic identity card has resulted in the state losing Rp 1.12 trillion ($98 million), following an investigation that officials were marking up costs.

The total budget of the project was Rp 6 trillion, disbursed from 2011 to 2012, but “the state loss, based on the investigation result, was Rp 1.12 trillion,” Johan Budi, spokesman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said on Wednesday.

He declined to provide details on the budget of the program, known as e-KTP, allegedly being marked up.

The commission had named Sugiharto, director general of population and civil registry at the Home Affairs Ministry, as a suspect in this case.

Johan said the KPK is still investigating the possibility that money transfers sent to Sugiharto’s bank account were kickbacks.

The commission on Tuesday and Wednesday searched the office of the ministry as well as the room of Home Affairs Minister Gamawan to find evidence linking any mark-up of the budget, and it has confiscated some documents.

The KPK also searched the office of the directorate general of the population and civil registry on Jalan Taman Makam Pahlawan in Kalibata. The office of Quadra Solution, which is an IT services provider in Kuningan, was searched, too, Johan said.

“S [Sugiharto] was the official who was responsible in managing the contract with the partner company in the procurement project,” Johan said, referring to Quadra Solution.

Johan said that the KPK would summon Gamawan if he is needed to provide information related to the case.

The case was brought to light after former lawmaker and treasurer of the Democratic Party, Muhammad Nazaruddin, said last year that the project was marked-up and he accused Gamawan and some lawmakers of receiving bribes related to the project.

Gamawan previously denied the allegation, saying that there were no irregularities found in the report of the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) and it was not investigated by KPK.

The Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra), a budget watchdog, demanded the KPK to investigate further and to charge officials who were involved.

“The KPK’s knife should be sharper for the state official, not only for the one who signed the contract,” Uchok Sky Khadafi, investigation director of Fitra, said on Wednesday.

Uchok, citing the audit result of the Supreme Audit Agency in 2013, said that the state loss actually totaled Rp 3 trillion.

China’s EximBank funds 46 ASEAN infra projects

The Brics Post, April 13, 2014

With preferential loans from China, 24 highways, three railways, one port,
 three airports and nine bridges have been built, rebuilt or renovated in
 ASEAN countries, says EximBank, which plays a critical role in the growth
of China’s external trade [AP]

The Export-Import Bank of China (EximBank), one of the world’s leading lenders, has provided credit support to 46 transport infrastructure projects in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries by early 2014, according to official Chinese data.

With preferential loans from China, 24 highways, three railways, one port, three airports and nine bridges have been built, rebuilt or renovated in ASEAN countries, says EximBank, which plays a critical role in the growth of China’s external trade.

In Cambodia where most places were not connected by railways, the bank’s lending has facilitated the country to put in place its national rail system, building railways of about 2,173 kilometers.

The Second Penang Bridge in Malaysia, the longest sea-crossing bridge in Southeast Asia, and the Luang Prabang Airport in Laos have also been provided credit by the EximBank.

The new Chinese leadership of President Xi Jinping has placed great emphasis on deepening economic links between China and ASEAN. The two sides are also trying to upgrade the existing China-ASEAN Free Trade Area agreement.

Beijing’s increased attention to the neighborhood is in the backdrop of the much-hyped Asia Pivot by the US, a policy aimed at re-invigorating American military and economic influence in the fast-growing region.

Meanwhile, the EximBank, which is also the biggest lender to Africa, will account for almost 80 per cent of a $1 trillion financing for the continent announced by the Chinese government up till 2025.

TBP and Agencies

Space tech provides Africa's first Islamic insurance for herders

Sapa-AFP, 01 april, 2014

Image by: ©Vladimir Wrangel/shutterstock.com

The son of a camel herder, Hassan Bashir knows how tough traditional life in Kenya's arid north is, where pastoralists rely on livestock herds surviving boom and bust cycles of drought.

But Bashir is also an astute entrepreneur, developing Africa's first livestock insurance scheme to make payouts compliant with Islamic law, by bringing together Muslim scholars and number-crunching agricultural experts using NASA weather satellites.

"I've come from the community, and I understand its needs," said Bashir, a sharp-suited businessman respectfully greeting elders dressed in traditional flowing robes in his hometown of Wajir, where goats and donkeys wander the dusty streets.

Bashir, 48, set up Takaful Insurance of Africa three years ago, which unlike ordinary insurance schemes prohibited by Islam, takes only a management fee from clients.

"It is a fair and ethical way to protect pastoralist's livestock assets from natural hazards," said Bashir, whose 80-year old father was one of the first to receive a payout this week for his herd of 50 cows.

Payments are assessed not according to deaths of individual animals as it would be impossible to provide proof, but according to an index drawn up by experts at the Nairobi-based International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), using satellites to measure vegetation coverage and thus the severity of drought.

The company is named after the Islamic concept of takaful, in which risks are shared among the community, rather than insurance where policy holders effectively gamble risks against the company.

Any surplus money after payments are made is distributed equally to remaining policy holders.

"It is a cooperative welfare basket for the community," Bashir added, who was inspired to switch from regular insurance broking to the Islamic system after "hot discussions" with his family who refused his "unethical" money.

"I wanted to do something to develop the people here," he said.

In 2011, fierce drought here in northeastern Kenya decimated herds with a devastating impact, and spiralled into famine in nearby war-torn Somalia.

Like elsewhere in the Horn of Africa, vast numbers of livestock are kept as a form of savings account. But these living investments face natural hazards.

"The animals are our lives," said 65-year old Abdi Aden Bulle, who lost some 40 of his 50 cows, and eight of his 10 camels in the 2011 drought, a key driver in his decision to join the scheme.

"We sell the animals to get food, to pay school fees, pay medical expenses."

Takaful made the first payouts this week in Wajir to 100 policyholders.

On the bottom end, one herder who had insured three goats and paid a premium of $5 six months ago, received a payout of $7.

At the higher end, a herder who paid some $940 to insure 50 cows received $720 in recompense, less than what he put in due to assessments of the severity of the drought suffered in that area.

Rains were several weeks late this year.

"It's been very, very dry," said herder Khalif Mohammed, who lost three of his 15 goats this year.

Once cash payouts are made, herders say they will use it to restock animals, pay school fees or daily domestic needs.

Animals hold enormous cultural and emotional value and underpin society here.

"People can be made almost crazy when they lose animals in the drought, they would be seen talking to themselves," said Wajir governor Ahmed Abdullahi.

But the economic potential is also huge: here in Wajir country, a scrubland region where most live in traditional huts, government estimates value livestock at some $550 million (400 million euros).

Across Kenya, the pastoral livestock sector is valued at around $5 billion (3.5 billion euros).

Organisers -- backed by some $6 million (4.5 million euros) from Australia, Britain and the European Commission -- hope it can strengthen the ability of fragile communities across the region to cope during droughts, and reduce reliance on food aid.

"It is an innovative product with the possibility to replicate it elsewhere in Kenya and other nations," Dominique Davoux from the European Commission said.

With few of the semi-nomadic people holding bank accounts, insurance premiums are even payable via mobile telephone money transfers using text messages.

Across the Horn of Africa, over 70 million people live in pastoralist areas, regional governments estimate, supplying some 90 percent of all meat.

The ILRI-designed system is already being taken up by insurers in other northern Kenyan regions and southern Ethiopia, totalling some 4,000 policyholders, with numbers growing.

Takaful is eyeing up possibilities in Somalia, especially the more stable self-declared Somaliland in the north.

But the scheme faces challenges ahead, as when drought hits, all members are paid.

The scheme will need to spread the risk by rolling it out to different areas to give it the size and geographical diversity needed "to create a stable insurance scheme", Bashir said.

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