Home Affairs Minister Denies KPK Searches His Room

Jakarta (Antara) - Home affairs minister Gamawan Fauzi denied here on Wednesday that Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK)'s investigators had searched his room on Tuesday. "There was no search. It was only Pak (Mr) Sugiharto's room that was searched," he said at the ministry building. He admitted that KPK's officials had met him at his room but they did not conduct searches as reported in the media so far. He said he gave them bundles of official documents linked to the E-ID Card (e-KTP) project. "In the morning, I met them here (at the office). I gave them bundles of documents they required. I let them take those they need," he noted. The minister said he had filed the documents according to categories. KPK's investigators then selected those linked to the e-KTP in his room, he added. "I had separated the documents according to their categories. Some were on Aceh and Papua. If they required documents on Aceh well they can just take them," he remarked. KPK's spokesman Johan Budi, meanwhile, said the KPK had conducted searches in three locations, one of them in the working room of minister Gamawan Fauzi with regard to investigation into alleged corruption in the e-KTP project. From the locations, the KPK found two pieces of evidence linked to the case, Johan Budi said, but he declined to tell where exactly the evidence was found. The KPK had named the director of information processing and population administration of the Directorate General of Population and Civil Registration, Sugiharto, as a suspect in the case. The project was estimated to have caused a loss of Rp1.2 trillion to the state. "Based on rough calculations at an investigation level, the loss was Rp1.12 trillion. However, the budget for the project was in two periods, with the first one set at about Rp2 trillion in 2011 and the second one at more than Rp3 trillion in the 2012, so in total it reached around Rp6 trillion," Johan said. (*)