ASN Ministry of PU Died due to Unapproved Sick Leave, Minister Dody: Super Hoaks

JAKARTA - Minister of Public Works (PU) Dody Hanggodo denied the news circulating on social media that a state civil servant (ASN) of the PU Ministry died because his vacation permit was not approved by him.

According to Dody, the information is not true. He admitted that he had asked the Personnel Bureau of the Ministry of PU to check and hasilya did not find the case as circulated on social media.

"Someone died because I didn't approve his vacation permit. Well, that's super hoaks. I've checked with the Personnel Bureau, no one is like that," Dody told reporters, Friday, July 24.

Based on the results of the examination, he continued, the employee in question had indeed been sick first.

Meanwhile, the administrative process for applying for leave took place after his health condition worsened.

"All who are sick are sick. The process of licensing leave is later," he said.

Dody revealed that since the end of April 2026, he had temporarily withdrawn the authority to approve leave that had previously been delegated to the Secretary General (Sekjen) of the Ministry of PU.

This policy, he said, was taken after it was found that there was an allegation of the use of false documents in the application for leave by a number of employees.

"The leave permit that I have delegated to the Secretary General, I withdraw because many of my friends' findings apply for leave using false documents. Well, this is what I have to fix," explained Dody.

However, he emphasized that the policy was not intended to make it difficult for employees to obtain leave rights, but as a step to improve discipline in the PU Ministry.

According to Dody, the authority to approve leave will be returned to the Secretary-General after the process of arranging the personnel administration system is completed.

"Later I will give you a week or two weeks, I will return it to the Secretary-General. I withdraw that authority only to give a shock effect to friends in PU. Don't get used to only having to use false documents for leave permits," he said.

Recently, Dody has been hit by hoax issues about the news of a PU employee who applied for sick leave.

The leave was only approved by Dody Hanggodo after the employee died.

Information circulating on social media said that the employee had previously applied for sick leave.

However, the approval was only given in July 2026, when the person in question was reported to have died.

In fact, based on the chronology compiled by the PU Ministry, the employee was first found in a sick condition at the West Java Construction Service Selection Implementation Center (BP2JK) on March 1, 2026. The person concerned was then immediately rushed to Borromeus Hospital, Bandung, and underwent intensive care due to a ruptured blood vessel.

Three days later, on March 4, 2026, the BP2JK West Java human resources manager reported the employee's condition to the human resources administration team of the Directorate General of Construction.

At that time, officers were directed to process the sick leave application after the patient left the hospital by attaching a hospitalization letter.

However, on the same day, the employee died so that the administration that was later processed was a death document.

The PU Ministry also emphasized that there was never a sick leave application in March 2026 because the illness and death of the employee occurred before the issuance of the Minister of PU Decree Number 1794 concerning the Delegation of Authority for Personnel Affairs.