Taufik Suspected of Accepting Bribes from Political Elites

The Corruption Eradication Commission has named House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Taufik Kurniawan of the National Mandate Party (PAN) a suspect in a graft case. This makes him the second House leader of the 2014 to 2019 period to be implicated in corruption.

ANTARA FOTO/DHEMAS REVIYANTO

Taufik Kurniawan

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has named House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Taufik Kurniawan of the National Mandate Party (PAN) a suspect in a graft case. This makes him the second House leader of the 2014 to 2019 period to be implicated in corruption.  Former House speaker and Golkar Party politician Setya Novanto was found guilty of taking bribes in an e-ID graft case.

On Tuesday, the deputy chairperson of the KPK, Basaria Pandjaitan, said Taufik was suspected of accepted at least Rp 3.65 billion as a part of a fee for the allocation of special allocation funds (DAK) in the revision of the 2016 state budget for the deliberation of the 2016 regional budget of Kebumen in Central Java.

”It is believed to have reached 5 percent of the total budget allocated for the Kebumen regency amounting to Rp 93.37 billion, which according to the plan, would have been used for the construction of roads and bridges in Kebumen,” Basaria said.

Kebumen was part of Taufik’s electoral district in the 2014 general election. In the 2019 general election, he will again compete in Kebumen, Purbalingga and Banjarnegara, which are grouped in the Central Java X electoral district.

Evaluation

PAN’s secretary-general, Eddy Soeparno, said an internal meeting was held by the party to evaluate Taufik’s position as deputy speaker of the House. However, the decision on his position as a House member and PAN cadre will be decided after a legal decision had been made.

The deputy speaker of the House, Fahri Hamzah, said Taufik rarely came to the House. “We also have a WhatsApp group of the House leadership, but he rarely comments. This could be because of his legal problems,” he added.

On Oct. 15, Taufik was seen at the House. At the time, he seemed to be in a hurry to leave and when asked why he was rarely seen at the House, Taufik said he was busy with preparations for the 2019 general election.

The head of the secretariat bureau of the House leadership, Djaka Winarko, said Taufik had been present at the House last week. “However, there are no details of his activities.”

KOMPAS/ALIF ICHWAN

The deputy chairperson of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Basaria Panjaitan, accompanied by KPK spokesman Febri Diansyah, speaks at a press conference at the KPK’s headquarters in Jakarta on Tuesday (30/10/2018). Basaria said the antigraft body had named the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Taufik Kurniawan, a suspect in a graft case related to the deliberation of the regional budget of Kebumen in Central Java.

Travel ban

The legal process against Taufik emerged on Saturday when news broke that he was banned from traveling overseas.

On Monday, the head of the honorary council of PAN, Amien Rais, was seen at KPK’s headquarters. Even though he failed to meet KPK’s chairman, Agus Rahardjo, Amien asked the KPK not to handle cases in a selective manner.

KPK spokesman Febri Diansyah said the KPK was not selective in its approach when carrying out the legal process.

Basaria said the bribery case came to light when Kebumen Regent M Yahya Fuad approached a number of parties after he was sworn in in 2016. One of them was Taufik in his capacity as deputy speaker of the House on economy and finance in charge of Commission XI overseeing finance and banking.

According to him, the handover of the fee had allegedly been carried out in stages at a number of hotels in Semarang and Yogyakarta. “However, the third  planned handover failed due to an operation conducted by the KPK,” Basaria said.

The KPK operation took place on Oct. 15, 2016, and two people, the chairman of Commission A of the Kebumen Regency Legislative Council Yudhy Tri Hartanto and a civil servant of the Kebumen Tourism Office, Sigit Widodo, were detained.

The KPK named Yahya a suspect at the beginning of this year. A company owned by him, PT Tradha, has also been implicated in a money laundering scheme in May because it allegedly accepted an allocation of the special allocation funds for a number of infrastructure projects in Kebumen.

Besides Taufik, the KPK also named the speaker of Kebumen Regency Legislative Council, Cipto Waluyo, a suspect.

(IAN/AGE)