The Alleged Corruption Case Of DBHCHT In The NTB Distanbun Rises To Investigation

Photos of NTB Prosecutor's Office. (ANTARA/Dhimas B.P.)

The alleged corruption case in the management of the Tobacco Products Excise Sharing Fund (DBHCHT) at the West Nusa Tenggara Agriculture and Plantation Service is being investigated by special criminal prosecutors. Spokesperson for the West Nusa Tenggara High Prosecutor's Office, Efrien Saputera, confirmed the investigation. "Yes, based on the results of the case title, we have upgraded the status of the handling from the investigation to the pidsus investigation stage," said Efrien in Mataram, Antara, Thursday, October 26. By increasing the status of case handling to the investigation stage, the prosecutor's office is currently scheduling examination of witnesses and documents. "Witnesses who were included in the agenda of investigating the investigators who were previously asked for information at the investigation stage, all of them entered," he said. Efrien does not deny that the officials involved in the management of DBHCHT at the NTB Distanbun are included in the list of examinations. Likewise, the provider of goods and farmer groups receiving aid. He revealed that the distribution of DBHCHT in the NTB Distanbun, which is suspected of having a corruption problem, took place in the 2022 fiscal year. One of them is related to supporting facilities for agricultural and plantation production in NTB, namely the procurement of equipment machinery and tobacco oven stoves which cost IDR 8.3 billion. For the procurement of the event engine, the NTB Distanbun set aside a DBHCHT budget of IDR 2.3 billion. This value is for the procurement of 92 units. The tools were distributed to tobacco farmer groups spread across West Lombok Regency, Central Lombok Regency, East Lombok Regency, and Sumbawa Regency. Then, the remaining Rp6 billion was realized by the NTB Distanbun for the procurement of 300 units of tobacco oven furnaces.

The NTB Distanbun distributed the tool to tobacco farmer groups in Central Lombok Regency and East Lombok Regency. There are allegations that the tools cannot be used by farmers because they do not meet their needs. Other allegations related to distribution are not right on target.