The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Calls Travel Agent Profits For Additional Special Hajj Quota To Be An Indicator For Calculating State Losses

Acting Deputy For Enforcement And Execution Of The KPK Asep Guntur Rahayu/PHOTO: Wardhany Tsa Tsia-VOI

JAKARTA - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said state losses of IDR 1 trillion in cases of corruption in quotas and Hajj implementation in 2023-2024 at the Ministry of Religion (Kemenag) could increase.

Moreover, the calculation indicator targets a number of benefits obtained from travel agents or travel agents.

As for calculating the state's losses, the KPK cooperates with the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK).

"Later on, the concept of calculating the state's financial losses will also look at the benefits of travel, the benefits of other parties obtained from state facilities," said Acting Deputy for Enforcement and Execution of the KPK Asep Guntur Rahayu, quoted on Saturday, September 20.

Asep said the travel agent's profit was an indicator of the calculation because the special hajj quota of the Saudi Arabian government's additional 20,000 rations should not be traded.

"It's given to the state," he said.

"Not given to travel, not given to individuals," continued Asep who is also the Director of KPK Investigation.

This condition then made the KPK fail to determine the corruption suspect in the hajj quota. Asep emphasized that investigators must find out how much the special hajj quota from the additional quota was sold by travel agents.

"That's what we are really investigating, how much is the average sale, because the difference is different from each triple depending on supply and demand," he said.

"If there are more and more trips that register for the pilgrimage in 2024, for example, for special pilgrimages while the quota is slightly higher. But, for example, he has two quotas but only two are registered, well, that's definitely not too high, because the quota is also much more than the demand," he said.

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 such as searches, confiscations and examination of witnesses.

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.

This case began with the provision of 20,000 additional Hajj quotas from the Saudi Arabian government for Indonesia to reduce the queues of 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.