Road Project In West Papua Mangkrak, Attorney General's Office Investigates Flow Of Funds Of IDR 8.5 Billion

Assistant for Special Crimes at the West Papua Prosecutor's Office Abun Hasbullah Syambas (center) during a press conference in Manokwari. (ANTARA)

MANOKWARI - The West Papua High Prosecutor's Office (Kejati) has received a refund of IDR 2 billion in the alleged corruption case of improving the quality of the Mogoy-Merdey road in Teluk Bintuni Regency.

Assistant for Special Crimes at the West Papua Prosecutor's Office Abun Hasbullah Syambas said the suspect AYM had twice returned state financial losses.

The first refunds deposited into the regional general treasury on November 6, 2024, amounted to Rp1,441,729,100, for fines for volume shortages and quality of the project's work.

"Now the suspect AYM has also returned Rp2 billion in state money losses," said Abun.

He said that in handling corruption cases, the prosecutor's office did not only focus on the repressive side but also optimize efforts to save state losses.

This is an implementation of the order of Attorney General ST Burhanuddin, but the return of state losses does not erase the corruption committed by the suspect.

"In this case, five people have been named as suspects, namely NB, AYM, D, AK, NK, and BSAB," said Abun.

He explained that the budget for the Mogoy-Merdey road project in Bintuni Bay was sourced from the 2023 West Papua Provincial Budget at the West Papua PUPR Service worth IDR 8,535,162,123.

The project implementation should have started on August 25, 2023 and ended December 31, 2023, but was delayed and no critical contract handling steps were taken.

This condition resulted in the realization of the project implementation of only 51.11 percent, while the West Papua PUPR Office had paid 100 percent through Gloria Bintang Timur's CV account.

"The results of the calculation of state losses amounted to Rp7,326,372,972. Field inspections on September 11, 2024, work has not been completed 100 percent," he said.

Youth Leader, Moskoona Seprianus Yerkohok, asked the West Papua Prosecutor's Office to thoroughly investigate the flow of funds in cases of alleged corruption in improving the quality of the Mogoy-Merdey road.

This is related to the examination of two witnesses, namely YS and KR, who were considered as key witnesses in revealing the person who received the last flow of funds.

According to him, YS as the account owner was also involved, because he received a transfer of IDR 5 billion for the second phase of the total budget of IDR 8.5 billion.

Similar to witness KR who lent an ID card to suspect AYM to be used as director of CV Gloria Bintang Timur (a road project implementing company).

"It is impossible if both of them do not know the flow of funds. What is said to be the Attorney General's Office, the YS profession is a barber and KR is a shrimp collector," said Seprianus.

He hopes that West Papua Prosecutor's Office investigators will not only conduct examinations of YS and KR with witness status, because both are consciously involved in road projects.

Information from YS and KR is the key to revealing the main actors in the process of procuring the Mogoy-Merdey road project package sourced from the West Papua Provincial Budget in 2023.

"It is strange that KR gave him an ID card but did not know that the director's power was given, until he opened the account and received a transfer of Rp. 2.5 billion (first phase disbursement)," said Seprianus.