Investigators Completed Investigation Of 102 MSMEs Involved In Mask Projects Allegedly Corrupted

Mataram City Police Investigators have completed the examination of 102 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) involved in the mask procurement project to deal with the spread of COVID-19 in the West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) region.

"So, the MSME examination agenda, it has been completed. We have examined 102 MSME actors, actually 105, but two people died, and one person had problems with other crimes, so 102," said Head of Criminal Investigation Unit of the Mataram Police, Kompol Made Yogi Purusa Utama, quoted by ANTARA, Thursday, November 23.

He explained that 102 MSME actors were spread across all regencies/cities, both on the islands of Lombok and Sumbawa.

"Actually, we will examine other MSMEs, but this is what is not a legal entity, they borrowed a flag. This is outside the 102 MSMEs registered with the cooperative service," he said.

However, from the results of the examination of 102 MSME actors, investigators have found the direction of development of the project suspected of having problems related to corruption.

"The next agenda, we will trace the procurement budget distribution transaction. He said it was channeled through banks," he said.

The banks involved in this budget distribution are PT Bank Central Asia (BCA) and PT Bank Pembangunan Daerah NTB Syariah.

"From there, we will see if the transaction is appropriate or not," he said.

After the examination of the banking sector, investigators will coordinate further with the auditors, in this case the NTB Representative BPKP.

The COVID-19 mask procurement project, which is suspected to be problematic, will run in the 2020 period. For this procurement, the local government provides APBD funds worth IDR 12.3 billion as a result of the budget refocusing policy during the pandemic.

The investigation into the alleged corruption case in the procurement process began in January 2023. The Mataram Police then increased the handling to the investigation stage in mid-September 2023.

From the results of the investigation, the police found indications of unlawful acts that led to criminal acts of corruption.