Sriwijaya Mosque Corruption Case Trial, Banggar South Sumatra DPRD Confirms Project Without Proposal

PALEMBANG - The Budget Agency (Banggar) of the South Sumatra DPRD for the 2013-2018 period confirmed that the discussion on grants for the construction of the Sriwijaya Palembang Grand Mosque took place without a proposal.

This was revealed from five witnesses (Giri Ramanda, Ramdhan Basyeban Agus Sutikno, MF Ridho, and Yansuri) in the follow-up trial for corruption in the grant fund for the construction of the Sriwijaya Grand Mosque at the Palembang District Court, Thursday, October 7.

Witness Giri Ramanda said that as chairman of the Banggar DPRD South Sumatra, there were two things that were discussed in the budget meeting held by his party at that time, first, the process of preparing grants in the form of money and land grants.

During the discussion, his party checked the completeness of the files and in the process, no proposal for the mosque's construction plan was found and there was no clarity on the status of the land to be used.

Then his party asked the executive to complete the files in question.

"First, I asked to continue with the proposal at that time, during the meeting process, I also asked the executive to complete the status of land clarity in Jakabaring," he said before the Panel of Judges, chaired by Judge Abdul Aziz.

Chairman of Commission III of the South Sumatra DPRD MF Ridho added that the Banggar leadership at that time had reminded the executive represented by the defendant Mukti Sulaiman as the Provincial Secretary and Head of the Regional Government Budget Team (TAPD) to complete the proposal according to the existing rules.

Because referring to the regulation, all the requirements must have been completed by TAPD before discussing it in the DPRD.

"Physically it is not visible, there is no proposal. However, the leaders and members of the Banggar have questioned it and have conveyed the regulations to TAPD," he said.

Then regarding the budget discussion, he continued, it was known that the funds needed for the plan to build the largest prototype mosque in Asia were worth IDR 1.2 trillion.

The nominal was known in a meeting discussing the Sriwijaya Mosque grant fund which was attended by the then chairman of the Sriwijaya Mosque Waqf Foundation, Marwah M Diah.

"It was told from the beginning that the discussion about the budget plan would cost IDR 1.2 trillion. That's the story from Marwah M Diah and the recording is there. They have a contract with a construction contractor worth approximately IDR 6 billion," he said.

Responding to this, Deputy Chairman of Commission III of the South Sumatra DPRD, Agus Sutikno, said he reminded Marwah M Diah that Rp. 1.2 trillion was very heavy because the provincial budget could not suffice, so there needed to be a discussion taking into account the government's ability.

"This was discussed in the Bangar. As far as I remember the meeting was conveyed by the chairman of the TAPD, Mukti Sulaiman, normatively, it was only a policy. So in our opinion, it is very difficult to rely on the APBD with that nominal," he said.

According to witness Yansuri, during the budget meeting, the government stated that the proposal was already in place and would soon be followed up because of the consideration that a mosque should be built immediately to convince foreign grantors.

Because the government has been convinced that the proposal exists, all members of the DPRD agree to include it in the plenary session.

"The government has assured that if the conditions are complete, it will continue to be followed up, including an evaluation from the Minister of Home Affairs regarding the budget, so the DPRD believes that all members agree until it is included in the plenary session," he said.

Meanwhile, the Public Prosecutor of the South Sumatra High Prosecutor's Office Roy Riyadi said, in fact the DPRD trial had warned the executive to complete the proposal but until now the council had not seen the proposal.

"The proposal is verified by the executive when it is discussed in the DPRD, they only remind them. Indeed, the proposal is not visible, but the DPRD has warned that the proposal is completed," he said.

So in the discussion it was the task of the TAPD's authority, chaired by Mukti Sulaiman, then verification was the task of his work unit at the Legal Bureau of the Regional Secretariat of the South Sumatra Provincial Government, which was chaired by Ahmad Nasuhi at the time.

According to him, they will explore related to the agreement on the discussion in the budget agency, which without the proposal has violated the rules.

"There is a note that I have seen, from the DPRD asking the executive to complete the requirements for applying for a grant. But until now there is still nothing. We will study this," he said.

The five witnesses were presented in a follow-up trial against the two defendants, namely Mukti Sulaiman (former Regional Secretary of South Sumatra) and Ahmad Nasuhi (former Acting Head of Legal Bureau of the South Sumatra Provincial Government Secretariat).

In this case, they are alleged to have caused state losses of Rp. 113 billion, out of a total of Rp. 130 billion in grant money for the construction of the Sriwijaya Mosque which was disbursed in the first term of 2015 amounting to Rp. 50 billion and the second term of 2017 amounting to Rp. 80 billion.