JAKARTA: An Indonesian former government minister has been named as a suspect in a corruption probe and accused of pocketing more than US$800,000 of public money, a week after resigning from his post.
Syahrul Yasin Limpo, who until recently led the agriculture ministry, is the sixth minister investigated over corruption since President Joko Widodo took office in 2014.
Graft remains rampant in the massive archipelago nation, where politicians are widely seen as among the most corrupt.
Limpo regularly took “illegal levies from civil servants at the agricultural ministry to pay for his and his core family’s personal needs”, Johanis Tanak, deputy chief of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), told a press conference late on Wednesday (Oct 11).
The politician was accused of forcing ministry officials to send him money from the state coffers monthly, to a total of 13.9 billion rupiah (US$885,000), and used the cash to pay credit card bills and instalments on a luxury car.
Source: CNA
