JAKARTA. Former health minister Siti Fadillah Supari, currently a graft suspect, is scheduled to visit the National Police’s detective unit on Wednesday.

Siti’s lawyer says that they need to clarify her alleged role in the Health Ministry medical procurement case in 2005.

“We haven’t received a letter from the police about my client’s status. In fact, we only learned about Siti had being named as a suspect from the media,” Siti’s lawyer Sitor Situmorang said on Tuesday.

Siti’s name was first raised on Thursday last week by the former head of the ministry's health crisis response center, Mulya A. Hasjmy. He testified before the Jakarta Corruption Court that he had been questioned by police “as a witness for suspect Siti Fadillah Supari”.

Mulya accused the former minister of ordering him to help Indofarma win a tender for a medical-equipment procurement project. The defendant in the case being tried at the corruption court is the marketing director of the state-owned pharmaceutical firm Indofarma, M. Naguib.

National Police chief detective Comr. Gen. Sutarman on Tuesday confirmed that Siti had been named a suspect for allegedly abused her budget power during her 2004-2009 tenure as minister.

Commenting on this, Sitor reiterated that his client had never violated the budget law during her post as health minister.

“After all, the Health Ministry had a lot of projects back in 2005. I don’t know which project they [the Police] are talking about,” he said.

Siti has denied the allegation against her, claiming that she “never knew who Mulya was or what his position in the ministry was.” (asa/TheJakartaPost)

Editor: