The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Ensures That The Hajj Quota Corruption Suspect Will Be Announced Soon

KPK spokesman Budi Prasetyo (DOK Wardhany Tsa Tsia/VOI)

JAKARTA - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) will soon announce the suspect in the alleged corruption of quotas and the implementation of Hajj in 2023-2024 to the Ministry of Religion (Kemenag). Those who must be responsible in this case will be submitted to the public.

"The KPK will immediately submit an update on its investigation, including conveying the parties responsible and designated as suspects in this case," said KPK spokesman Budi Prasetyo to reporters at the KPK's Merah Putih building, Kuningan Persada, South Jakarta, Tuesday, September 16.

Budi said the anti-corruption commission was investigating allegations of corruption in the hajj quota using a general investigation warrant (sprindik). "This means that at the time of the investigation at the initial stage no parties have been named as suspects," he said.

The investigators have examined a number of parties in this case to sharpen evidence. Among them are former Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas to a number of owners of travel Hajj organizers and the associations that oversee it.

Investigators have also confiscated evidence from a number of locations, including from Yaqut's house to the Ministry of Religion's office. All of these efforts, Budi said, were to investigate the corruption of the Hajj quota starting from the distribution of 20,000 additional rations from the Saudi Arabian government.

Then the KPK also found allegations of money flow from the Travel Bureau to parties at the Ministry of Religion. Therefore, in the construction of this case, we need to see in full why the alleged unlawful act then resulted in state financial losses," he said.

"Then the elements are also suspected of enriching oneself or other parties. Where did Budi come from, from the alleged flow of money," continued Budi.

Previously reported, the KPK has issued a general investigation warrant (sprindik) for alleged corruption in the addition of quotas and the implementation of Hajj in 2023-2024. This institution reasoned that the issuance was carried out so that they could make forced efforts.

The general Sprindik uses Article 2 Paragraph 1 and/or Article 3 of Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption as amended by Law Number 20 of 2021 in conjunction with Article 55 paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code. This means that there are state losses that occur due to this corrupt practice.

State losses in the corruption case of quota and Hajj for the period 2023-2024 are said to have reached more than IDR 1 trillion. This amount is still increasing because it is only the initial calculation of the KPK which continues to coordinate with the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK).

This case began with the provision of 20,000 additional Hajj quotas from the Saudi Arabian government for Indonesia to reduce queues for pilgrims. However, the distribution turned out to be problematic because it was divided equally, namely 50 percent for regular Hajj and 50 percent for special Hajj.

In fact, based on the law, the distribution should be 92 percent for regular Hajj and 8 percent for special Hajj.

Later, the distribution of problems was allegedly due to money from the Hajj and Umrah travel parties as well as the associations that oversee the Ministry of Religion. After getting the allotment, they sold the additional quota to prospective pilgrims.