Even The Procurement Of Carts At The Ministry Of Trade Has Been Corrupted, Its Status Is Now Being Investigated At Bareskrim

JAKARTA - The National Police's Criminal Investigation Unit is investigating a case of alleged corruption in the cart procurement project at the Ministry of Trade in the 2018 to 2019 period. In fact, the status of this case has been raised to the level of investigation.

"A case of corruption in the procurement of carts. Where the procurement of these carts is intended for MSMEs. This project was submitted to the Ministry of Trade in the 2018-2019 fiscal year with a total budget of more than Rp. 76 billion," said Karo Penmas, Police Public Relations Division, Brigadier General Ahmad Ramadhan, to reporters, Wednesday, June 8th.

The investigation into the alleged corruption in the cart procurement project was based on two police reports (LP). There are allegations of inflation, both in terms of wagon quality and distribution.

"But in practice there is a mark up in the procurement of trading carts and also fictitiousness," said Ramadhan.

Adding that, the Director of Corruption Crimes at the National Police Bareskrim Brigadier General Cahyono Wibowo said that around 10,700 carts must be distributed free of charge to business actors.

In detail, in the 2018 budget, the value of the procurement of 7,200 carts was IDR 49 billion with the unit price of the cart being around IDR 7 million.

Then in the 2019 budget, the government allocated a budget for the procurement of 3,570 wagon units with a unit price of around Rp. 8.6 million.

However, based on the provisional investigation found inflated. In fact, several carts were found which until now have not been distributed.

"The value is inflated and fictitious. The recipients are fictitious, even the recipients have not arrived," he said

"Based on the results of the ongoing prosecution, we have confiscated several carts that were not delivered and we have investigated that the carts have not yet been paid," continued Cahyono.

However, the suspect has not yet been identified. This is because the investigative team is still collecting evidence and clues to strengthen the suspect's determination.

"In the near future (determination of suspects, ed)," said Cahyono.