Embezzled Teacher College Funds In NTB, Five Suspects Arrested

JAKARTA - The West Nusa Tenggara Regional Police General Criminal Investigators have detained five suspects in the alleged embezzlement of the budget at the Bima Teacher Training and Education College (STKIP).

"The suspects were detained by investigators after undergoing an examination", said Director-General of the NTB Regional Police Kombes Hari Brata in Mataram, as reported by Antara, Friday, June 18.

Five suspects have been detained at the NTB Police Detention Center since Thursday, June 17, with the initials HA, Head of STKIP Bima for the 2016-2020 period; MF, Chairman of the Bima IKIP Foundation for the 2019-2020 period; HM, head of general administration for the period 2016-2019; AA, the head of the general administration for the 2019-2020 period, and AZ, the first deputy head of the academic field for the 2016-2019 period.

During the detention process, Hari said the suspects had followed procedures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

"The results of the antigen swab test of the suspects were negative for COVID-19", he said.

The case handled by police investigators is based on the police report Number LP/360/XI/2020/NTB/SPKT, dated November 20, 2020. The report relates to the alleged criminal embezzlement of STKIP Bima's budget.

"So from the results of the investigation, at least two pieces of evidence have been found relating to indications of criminal violations in the alleged embezzlement article", he said.

From the results of the case, the suspects are indicated to have embezzled the budget of the private university by submitting a request for a program plan that has nothing to do with lecture activities.

"They are strongly suspected of using the budget for personal purposes", said Hari.

From the results of the STKIP Bima internal audit, he said, a loss was found in the examination of the program's accountability report, which amounted to IDR 12.8 billion.

"But from our calculations, the loss has increased to more than IDR 19.3 billion," he said.

The campus had previously allowed the five suspects to restore the losses that had arisen. However, there was no good faith from the suspects so that this case was brought to the realm of criminal law.

The five suspects were charged with Article 374 of the Criminal Code Juncto Article 55 Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code which carries a penalty of five years in prison.