Attorney General's Office Urged to Investigate Alleged Corruption of Telkomsel Investment in GoTo  

JAKARTA - The Attorney General's Office is urged to follow up on the results of the examination and report of the Financial Supervisory Board (BPK) regarding the strategic investment worth trillions of rupiah in the GoTo technology company by Telkomsel.

The demand was conveyed by the mass of Solidarity for Youth for Justice (SPK) when they held an action in front of the Attorney General's Office, South Jakarta today.

The SPK mass brought a number of posters that read "Investigate the problematic investment of Telkomsel to GoTo", "Investigate the network behind the Telkomsel investment to GoTo" to "Don't let SOEs be dominated by oligarchs". They assessed that law enforcement officials must move quickly and independently without being influenced by political interests or business oligarchs.

"The decision to place state capital on a gigantic scale is very strange because it was executed when the target company actually showed bloody financial performance, experienced serious pressure, and recorded massive cumulative losses even before the merger process. This is not just a normal business risk, but there are strong indications of deliberate managerial negligence and risk mitigation neglect that trigger unrealized losses that evaporate state funds worth trillions of rupiah," said Field Coordinator of SPK Arip Muztabasani in Jakarta, Monday, May 25.

Arip explained that the corporate action could not be separated from the alleged conflict of interest due to historical relations and business elite networks that are said to have links with policymakers in SOEs and related digital entities. Thus, the Attorney General's Office is asked to conduct a thorough forensic audit of the investment process.

"We urge the Attorney General's Office to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation of all actors involved in both structural and functional terms in the decision-making line," said Arip.

"Don't hide behind the pretext of business risk doctrine. It is true that SOEs' losses can be business risks, but the limits are clear: it must be done in good faith (good faith) and the principle of prudence. If in the process there are elements of manipulation of policies, abuse of authority, and mens rea or malicious intent to benefit certain groups, then it is purely a criminal act of corruption that must be dragged to the green table," he continued.

Arip said that the action taken by his group was part of public control over the management of state strategic assets so that they would not fall into the practice of state capture by certain groups.

They stated that they would continue to monitor the legal process of the alleged problematic investment and urged reforms in digital investment governance in the state-owned enterprise environment. "Our attitude is purely a form of democratic control and academic control, not a blind personal judgment," said Arip.

"We strongly uphold the principle of presumption of innocence (presumption of innocence) in all the ongoing investigation processes at the Attorney General's Office. However, the law must be perpendicular. The Attorney General must prove to the people that the law in this country is not blunt upwards when dealing with corrupt business power relations," he concluded.