The Fate Of Farmers Is A Bet, Members Of The House Of Representatives Support Minister Amran Clean-Clean Corrupt Officials At The Ministry Of Agriculture

Member of Commission IV DPR Daniel Johan highlighted the dismissal of a number of officials at the Ministry of Agriculture (Kementan) for being involved in corruption cases. He also supports the Ministry of Agriculture's clean-up efforts because the corruption wrapped in the name of the policy is very detrimental to farmers.

"We support the disclosure of the practice of corruption in the congregation at the Ministry of Agriculture. If it is not eradicated, the fate of our farmers and the food sector will be at stake," said Daniel Johan, Thursday, December 12.

Daniel Johan appreciated the decisive steps taken by the Minister of Agriculture, Amran Sulaiman. According to him, firmness is very necessary in carrying out his duties as a minister to oversee the performance of his staff.

"It is hoped that all heads of ministries/agencies also have that kind of courage," he said.

The West Kalimantan electoral district PKB legislator said that the practices of fraud and corruption in the ministry had occurred a lot and were very detrimental to the state and the people. He considered that the efforts to clean up naughty elements should have been carried out.

"This is what Mr. Prabowo said, yes, that the number of leaks of state money was due to the game of elements in the government," said Daniel.

The member of the commission in charge of agricultural affairs said that imports of corn in the middle of the main harvest greatly threaten food sovereignty efforts in Indonesia. According to Daniel, such fraudulent practices also make it difficult for corn farmers.

"In the future, every policy or program in the Ministry of Agriculture must be checked again. Trace one by one so that there are no more loopholes that can be done by elements to commit corruption," he said.

Recently, Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Andi Amran Sulaiman revealed that his staff had practiced corruption related to corn imports. This started when he was in the middle of the main harvest, the Ministry of Agriculture actually imported corn up to IDR 6 billion.

When confirmed to his staff, Amran received a report from an official at the Ministry of Agriculture who said that the import of corn was carried out because of the previous regulations. Even though imports of corn in the middle of the main harvest can kill farmers' products because the price has fallen heavily.

Amran calculates the loss of Indonesian corn farmers due to imports can reach up to Rp40 trillion. At that time, Amran changed import procedures and tried to meet with related parties alone.

Departing without anyone accompanying him, Amran then met with the corn import mafia. He deliberately pretended to ask for an import 'trate' to find out who was involved in this corrupt practice.

From the corn mafia, it is known that there are a number of officials in the Ministry of Agriculture who received corruption money from corn imports. One of the officials even received a share of up to Rp. 10 trillion.

Finally, Amran fired four Ministry of Agriculture officials who were known to have received corruption money, two of whom were directors at the Ministry of Agriculture.

Prior to this corn import case, Amran Sulaiman also took firm steps by deactivating 11 Ministry of Agriculture officials and blacklisting four fertilizer companies that were proven to be circulating counterfeit fertilizers.

The counterfeit fertilizer and low quality fertilizers are very detrimental to farmers. The potential loss due to counterfeit fertilizers reaches Rp600 billion, while low quality fertilizers have the potential to cause losses of up to Rp3.2 trillion.