Examined For Almost 12 Hours, Director General Of PHU At The Ministry Of Religion Hilman Latief Asked Hajj Regulations

JAKARTA - The Director General of Hajj and Umrah at the Ministry of Religion, Hilman Latief, has completed an examination by investigators from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) tonight.

He underwent examination as a witness to alleged corruption in quotas and the implementation of the Hajj pilgrimage in 2023-2024.

From field observations, Hilman Latief left the KPK building at around 21.55 WIB.

Hilman underwent an examination since 10.22 WIB or about 11.5 hours and admitted that he was asked about the regulations for the implementation of the Hajj.

"Check, deepen the regulations in the hajj process," Hilman told reporters, Thursday, September 18 evening.

Hilman did not want to answer further about his examination. But he denied any refunds related to alleged corruption in the hajj quota.

"There is no (return of money, ed)," he said.

Meanwhile, Acting Deputy for Enforcement and Execution of the KPK Asep Guntur Rahayu said Hilman had been undergoing examination for a long time due to his central position.

Therefore, investigators investigated a lot of material, including the issuance of a Decree (SK) of the Minister of Religion signed by Yaqut Kholil Qoumas while in office regarding the distribution of 20,000 additional hajj quotas from the Saudi Arabian government.

"This is also one of the studies," said Asep separately.

Previously reported, the KPK said that allegations of corruption related to quotas and the implementation of Hajj in 2023-2024 at the Ministry of Religion (Kemenag) would enter a new chapter. In the near future, the suspects will be announced because the process is running using a general investigation warrant (sprindik).

The general Sprindik uses Article 2 Paragraph 1 and/or Article 3 of Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption as amended by Law Number 20 of 2021 in conjunction with Article 55 paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code. This means that there are state losses that occur due to this corrupt practice.

State losses in the corruption case of quota and Hajj for the period 2023-2024 are said to have reached more than IDR 1 trillion. This amount is still increasing because it is only the initial calculation of the KPK which continues to coordinate with the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK).

This case stems from the provision of 20,000 additional Hajj quotas from the Saudi Arabian government for Indonesia to reduce queues for pilgrims. However, the distribution turned out to be problematic because it was divided equally, namely 50 percent for regular Hajj and 50 percent for special Hajj based on the Decree (SK) of the Minister of Religion signed by Yaqut Cholil Qoumas.

In fact, based on the law, the distribution should be 92 percent for regular Hajj and 8 percent for special Hajj.

Later, the distribution of problems was allegedly due to money from the Hajj and Umrah travel parties as well as the associations that oversee the Ministry of Religion. After getting the allotment, they sold the additional quota to prospective pilgrims.