Police Dismantle Corruption In Batam Ampar Batam Project, State Loses IDR 30.6 Billion

Illustration of corruption (ANTARA)

The Riau Islands Regional Police (Polda) revealed a case of alleged corruption in the BP Batam Public Service Agency (BLU) budget in the revitalization project for repairing the north pier pool of Batu Ampar Batam Port in 2021-2023. As a result of this action, the state suffered losses of up to Rp. 30.6 billion.

The Riau Islands Police have named seven people as suspects. They consist of one state civil apparatus (ASN) BP Batam and six private parties. The determination of the suspect was carried out after investigators examined 146 witnesses, including experts from the BPK who found that the state loss was quite large in project implementation.

The revitalization project with a contract value of Rp. 75.5 billion was terminated in 2023, even though the payment had reached Rp. 63.6 billion. In its implementation, various irregularities were found, causing state losses of Rp. 30.6 billion.

According to investigators, the mode of corruption is carried out in a congregation by sharing roles, starting from making fictitious reports related to dredging and installing stones, controlling the flow of funds, allowing mark-up volume, not making contract addendums during device changes, to leaking confidential data to prospective providers and arranging the project auction process.

"We have revealed this case after an investigation from 2024 to 2025 on public reports. We have examined a total of 145 witnesses," said the Director of Special Criminal Investigation at the Riau Islands Police, Kombes Pol Silvester Simamora.

From the suspects, the police confiscated evidence in the form of hundreds of millions of rupiah in cash, gold bars, jewelry, Singapore dollars, as well as a number of documents that tracked the flow of project funds.

For their actions, the suspects were charged with Article 2, Article 3, and Article 18 of Law Number 20 of 2001 concerning Amendments to Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption with a maximum threat of 20 years in prison.