Head of Plantation Office Named Corruption Suspect

Jayapura, Papua, (Antara) - Head of the Keerom district plantation and forestry office JR and three other district officials have been named suspects in a corruption case over the procurement of fertilizer in that district in 2012. The Jayapura prosecution office has charged four suspects including JR with corruption causing a loss of Rp800 million in state fund, Piet Nuhumury, head of the special criminal section of the district prosecution office said. Piet said the four suspects were charged with embezzling funds to procure fertilizer appropriated for around 2,000 farmers in the areas Arso and Skamto, in the regency of Keerom. He said the other three are ABR, the head of the plantation section as the treasurer, SN as an official to receive goods, and FL as a member of the procurement committee. The case surfaced after it was found that the 2,000 farmers did not receive fertilizer, he said here on Tuesday. "We have asked eight witnesses all confirmed that the recipients of the fertilizer reported officially by the suspects were all fictitious," he said, adding, there was no fertilizer distributed after fund was disbursed for the procurement of the fertilizer. He said investigations of the case began early last month this year leading to the decision to name the four officials suspects last week. (*)