Jakarta deputy gubernatorial candidate Sylviana Murni has denied accusations of involvement in a graft case related to the construction of Al Fauz Mosque at the Central Jakarta mayor’s office, saying she was temporarily off duty for leadership training when the suspected incident occurred.

The candidate spoke after a questioning at the National Police’s Criminal Investigation Department in Jakarta on Monday.

“I was asked about the mosque construction. I said the mosque construction took place in 2010,  from Jan. 26 to Sept. 26, nine months in total. I had been assigned to join a training held by Lemhanas [the National Resilience Institute] during that stretch of time,” Sylviana told journalists.

Sylviana was the acting Central Jakarta mayor before she joined the Lemhanas training. She has claimed that she did not pay attention to the mosque construction during her nine-month training period.

Sylviana said that after she returned from the training, she was no longer the city mayor but had been assigned as an assistant of the Jakarta administration.

“On the drafting of the Jakarta budget implementation list [DIPA], yes [I was involved]. However, budget implementation-related issues addressed to me were technical in nature, and I was at Lemhanas at that time.”

The Jakarta administration allocated Rp 27 billion (US$2.02 million) for the construction of the two-floor mosque in its 2010 budget. The project got an additional Rp 5.6 billion in 2011. It was revealed in a financial audit conducted by the Supreme Audit Agency that excess funds amounting to Rp 108 million were allocated for the development of the mosque. (ebf)