Because He Was Not Cooperative, The Former Head Of The Bantaeng Tax Office Was Hastily Arrested By The KPK

JAKARTA - The former head of the Bantaeng Tax Office, Wawan Ridwan, finally felt the chill of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Detention Center, Pomdam Jaya Guntur Branch. The suspect in the development of the tax bribery case that has ensnared two officials at the Directorate General of Taxes at the Ministry of Finance, Angin Prayitno Aji and Dadan Ramdani, was arrested for being uncooperative in the investigation carried out by the anti-corruption commission.

Wawan Ridwan remained silent after arriving at the KPK's Red and White Building, Kuningan Persada, South Jakarta on Thursday, November 11. He was brought for further investigation after being arrested at his office in Makassar City.

In the development of this tax bribery case, in fact, it is not only Wawan who has been named a suspect. Since the beginning of last November, the KPK has also appointed the former Head of the Examination Team at the Directorate General of Taxation and Collection, Alfred Simanjuntak.

"For the purposes of the investigation, the team carried out the first forcible detention for the next 20 days starting from November 11 to November 30 at the KPK Detention Center at Pomdam Jaya Guntur," said Deputy Chairman of the KPK Nurul Ghufron in a press conference broadcast on the KPK RI YouTube, Thursday, November 11th.

The KPK argued that Wawan's detention was carried out to speed up the ongoing investigation into the development of the case. "The suspect WR (presumed, ed) is not cooperative," said Ghufron.

He then explained that Wawan's uncooperativeness was seen not only because he did not fulfill the summons for an investigation. Wawan, called Ghufron, is also complicated in providing information so that detention needs to be carried out before there is bad faith.

"What kind of uncooperativeness? Maybe one of them is not only the presence but also uncooperative information. That's why then (Wawan, ed) was arrested and detained," he said.

On that occasion, Ghufron explained that Wawan was named a suspect in the tax bribery case because he received money which was then handed over to two officials at the Directorate General of Taxes at the Ministry of Finance, namely Angin Prayitno and Dadan Ramdani, who had already been named suspects.

The receipt of this money, continued Ghufron, occurred several times. In January-February 2018, Wawan received Rp15 billion which was handed over by representatives of PT Gunung Madu Plantation.

"Furthermore, around the middle of 2018 (Wawan received, red) 500 thousand Singapore dollars which was handed over from representatives of PT Bank PAN Indonesia from a total commitment of Rp. 25 billion," said Ghufron.

Then, in July-September 2019, he again received 3 million Singapore dollars, which was handed over from representatives of PT Jhonlin Baratama. "From the total, suspect WR is suspected of receiving a share of around 625,000 Singapore dollars," explained Ghufron.

Not only that, Wawan is also suspected of receiving money from other taxpayers as a form of gratification. However, the KPK has not detailed the amount of money because it is still investigating.

For his actions, Wawan was then suspected of violating Article 12 letter a or Article 12 letter b or Article 11 of Law Number 31 of 1999 as amended by Law Number 20 of 2001 concerning Amendments to Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning Eradication of Acts Corruption Crimes Jo Article 55 paragraph (1) 1st of the Criminal Code and Article 12 B of Law Number 31 of 1999 as amended by Law Number 20 of 2001 concerning Amendments to Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning Eradication of Criminal Acts Corruption.