The Panel Of Judges Sets State Loss For Corruption In Sugar Imports That Ensnared Tom Lembong Rp194.72 Billion

JAKARTA - The Panel of Judges at the Corruption Court (Tipikor) determined state losses from the corruption case of sugar importation at the Ministry of Trade in 2015-2016, which ensnared Tom Lembong as a defendant, amounting to Rp194.72 billion.

Member judge Alfis Setiawan stated that the state loss was an advantage that should have been obtained by PT Perusahaan Perdagang Indonesia (Persero) or PPI in sugar importation activities.

"PT PPI belongs to BUMNholdingpangan ID Food, so the loss it suffered is a state loss," said the judge when reading the verdict hearing at the Jakarta Corruption Court (Tipikor), Friday, July 18.

Thus, the Panel of Judges disagreed with the indictment of the public prosecutor who suspected that there was a state loss of Rp578.1 billion in the case.

As for the prosecutor's calculations, there is a shortage of import duties and taxes in imports (PDRI), which are also listed as state losses in the case of corruption in sugar imports.

However, the Panel of Judges stated that the difference in the payment of import duties and white crystalline sugar (GKP) PDRI and raw crystal sugar (GKM) amounting to Rp320.69 billion was a calculation that was not yet real and must have actually occurred and could not be calculated clearly and measured or measured with certainty.

"So the calculation of Rp320.69 billion cannot be declared as the amount of state financial losses," said Hakim.

In this case, the Minister of Trade for the 2015'2016 period Thomas Trikasih Lembong or familiarly called Tom Lembong was sentenced to four years and six months in prison after being proven guilty of corruption.

Tom Lembong was also sentenced to a fine of Rp. 750 million, provided that if it was not paid, it would be replaced (subsidiary) with imprisonment for six months.

Thus, Tom Lembong's actions have violated Article 2 paragraph (1) of Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption as amended and supplemented by Law Number 20 of 2001 in conjunction with Article 55 paragraph (1) of the 1st Criminal Code.

The verdict handed down by the Panel of Judges was lower than the prosecutor's demand, which was a prison sentence of seven years. However, the fine imposed remains the same as the demand, which is Rp. 750 million, subsidiary to imprisonment for six months.

In this case, Tom Lembong was charged with causing state financial losses of Rp578.1 billion, among others for issuing a letter of import recognition or approval of imports of raw crystal sugar for the 2015'2016 period to 10 companies without being based on inter-ministerial coordination meetings and without any recommendations from the Ministry of Industry.

The letter of import recognition or approval of imports of raw crystal sugar for the 2015'2016 period to the parties is allegedly given to import raw crystal sugar to be processed into white crystal sugar, even though Tom Lembong knows the company has no right to process raw crystal sugar into white crystal sugar because the company is a refined sugar company.

He is also said to have not appointed a state-owned company (BUMN) to control the availability and stabilization of sugar prices, but to appoint the Kartika Cooperative Identification (Inkopkar), the Main Cooperative of the Indonesian National Police (Inkoppol), the Indonesian National Police Cooperative Center (Puskopol), and the TNI/Polri Employee Welfare Cooperative Unit (SKKP).