ESDM Top Brass Unaware of Extortion by Jero, Deputy Minister Says
4 September 2014 11:58 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Deputy Minister Susilo Siswoutomo said the ministry’s top brass were ignorant of the alleged extortion committed by beleaguered ESDM Minister Jero Wacik.
“It’s not that we deny it, but we still don’t know for sure yet about the suspected blackmail,” he said at the ministry office on Wednesday, September 3, 2014.
Susilo said Jero had never intervened in his subordinates’ tasks nor made any instruction on cash transfer. “He never ordered his subordinates to give him anything,” he said.
Susilo, however, said he would leave the case to the ongoing legal process and the Corruption Eradication Commission’s (KPK) investigation, which he believed to have its own reasons in determining one’s legal status.
Susilo said all of the ministry’s echelon I officials and employees were ready to testify should the KPK summon any of them to become Jero’s witness.
The KPK named Jero as a suspect in a graft case at the ministry that cost the nation some Rp9.9 billion on Wednesday, September 3, 2014. KPK deputy chief Bambang Widjojanto said Jero would be charged with articles on blackmail of the Law No. 31/1999 on Corruption Eradication.
AYU PRIMA SANDI
