The Attorney General's Office Examines 2 Officials Of The Ministry Of Trade Related To The Sugar Import Case

Kapuspenkum Kejagung Ketut Sumedana and Director of Investigation Jampidsus Kejagung Kuntadi (center) ANTARA/Laily Rahmawaty.

JAKARTA - Investigators from the Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes (Jampidsus) at the Attorney General's Office, Monday, examined two officials at the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) as witnesses in the investigation into the alleged corruption case of sugar importation activities for the 2015-2023 period.

The examination of the two witnesses was carried out after the previous week, Tuesday (3/10), Jampidsus investigators raised the status of handling cases from investigation to investigation stage.

The Head of the Legal Information Center (Kapuspenkum) of the Attorney General's Office, Ketut Sumedana, said that the two witnesses who were examined today were the Head of the Legal Bureau of the Ministry of Trade with the initials SH and the Coordinator for the Supervision of Goods and Goods of the Ministry of Trade with the initials NMKD.

"The witness examination was carried out to strengthen the evidence and complete the filing in the case," Sumedana said as quoted by ANTARA, Monday, October 9.

Since the announcement of the start of the investigation of the case, said Ketut, investigators have not examined witnesses because investigators are focusing on a priority scale.

"In investigating this case, no suspects have been named, and state financial losses are still being calculated at the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK)," he said.

The alleged corruption case of sugar importation at the Ministry of Trade is one of three new cases being investigated by Jampidsus since the status was upgraded to the investigation stage on Tuesday (3/10).

Two other cases, namely the alleged corruption in the engineering of fictitious projects at PT Sigma Cipta Caraka (SCC) and the alleged corruption in the Beista-Langsa Railway (KA) construction project, North Sumatra, amounted to Rp1.3 trillion.

Investigators have found two sufficient preliminary pieces of evidence on suspicion of abuse of authority in the sugar importation activity at the Ministry of Trade.

"This act, among others, is allegedly in the context of fulfilling national sugar stocks and stability of national sugar prices," said Director of Investigation at Jampidsus Kuntadi, Tuesday (3/10).

The Ministry of Trade is suspected of committing illegal acts by issuing the approval of imports of raw crystal sugar (GKM) in question to be processed into white crystal sugar (GKP) to parties suspected of being authorized.

In addition, he said, the Ministry of Trade is also suspected of having granted import permits that exceed the maximum quota limit required by the government.

In this case, investigators have conducted searches at the Ministry of Trade and the Office of PT Perusahaan Perdagangan Indonesia (PPI) in Central Jakarta.

At the Office of the Ministry of Trade, the Investigative Team conducted searches in the Ministerial Administration room, the Director of Imports' room, and the workspace of the Chairperson of the Agricultural Product Import Team.

Meanwhile, at the PPI Office, the Investigative Team conducted searches in the archive room as well as the PT PPI Accounting and Finance Division.

From the searches at the two locations, investigators confiscated a number of electronic evidence related to criminal incidents and documents.