Corruption Money Shelters Hajj Quota Continue To Be Hunted By KPK

JAKARTA - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is pursuing parties suspected of harboring money from corruption in quotas and organizing Hajj in 2023-2024 at the Ministry of Religion. The search continues so that the announcement of the suspect has not been made.

"We don't want to be careless in this, because we want to see who this money is and then move and stop it where it is, because we believe that it is true that there is a savior. That is, gather there," said Acting Deputy for Enforcement and Execution of the KPK Asep Guntur to reporters at the KPK's Red and White building, Kuningan Persada, South Jakarta, quoted on Friday, September 19.

Asep believes that the collection of money related to the hajj quota does not gather at the leadership of an institution, in this case the Ministry of Religion.

"If there is an institution that specifically manages its finances," he said.

"It doesn't have to be everyone who collects it. We from that person we are looking for, we are currently identifying, later when we find out that it turns out that these money collect or gather with someone, or you could say that the savings interpreter, it will make it easier for us investigators to carry out tracing," continued Asep, who also serves as Director of KPK Investigation.

As for investigating the flow of corruption money to its collectors, the KPK has collaborated with the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) to trace the flow of money in question.

For example, the money is with Mr. X. Then Mr. X is a representation of who. Then it is used anywhere.

"We can check, for example, when used in which shop. It is used to pay for something," he said.

Later, the party holding this money will be announced by the KPK. Everything will be conveyed to the public in conjunction with the announcement of the suspect.

"Who will keep it, of course we will tell it in time," said Asep.

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.