JAKARTA - The Ministry of Finance asked the scholarship recipients of the Education Fund Management Institute (LPDP) not to have anything to do with politics because there are sanctions for violating commitments according to the previously agreed agreement.
"The imposition of sanctions on LPDP scholarship recipients who do not fulfill their contracts and do not fulfill their obligations to return and contribute to Indonesia, have nothing to do with politics and are not related to any party," said a written statement from the LPDP in Jakarta, reported by Antara, Thursday, August 13.
The LPDP stated that every LPDP scholarship recipient who has completed their studies is required to return and contribute to Indonesia according to the agreement. If the alumni do not return to Indonesia, there is an obligation to refund the scholarship. A certificate of willingness to return to Indonesia will be given a scholarship recipient when registering.
If there is an LPDP scholarship recipient who does not fulfill the contract and has an obligation to return to Indonesia, the LPDP will carry out a series of warning letter processes, imposing sanctions on the return of study funds and collection.
"This applies to all alumni, including those on behalf of Veronica Koman Liau (VKL), who did not return to Indonesia," said the LPDP.
Meanwhile, the LPDP revealed that the chronology related to Veronika Koman (VKL) was based on information and the LPDP system that VKL had returned to Indonesia in 2018 to accompany the actions of Papuan students in Surabaya, but then returned to Australia.
The return of VKL to Indonesia in 2018, said the LPDP, when VKL had not graduated from its studies so that the return of VKL was not an alumni, but was still a scholarship recipient.
This condition cannot be considered returning to Indonesia in the context of fulfilling obligations as alumni.
The LPDP said VKL passed in July 2019 and only reported graduation from the LPDP monitoring and evaluation system application on September 23, 2019, but it has not been completely delivered.
[PRESS RELEASE] Financial punishment against human rights defender Veronica KomanFinancial punishment against Veronica Komanhttps: //t.co/e5jUCV74p2 pic.twitter.com/uVG2EbhpgA
- Veronica Koman (@VeronicaKoman) August 11, 2020
After becoming an alumni, VKL did not fulfill its obligations to return and work in Indonesia so the LPDP gave a warning up to billing.
VKL was asked to return the scholarship fund of IDR 773,876,918 via the first collection letter on November 22, 2019.
On February 15, 2020, LPDP continued, VKL proposed a 12 installment method with the first installment being paid to the state treasury in April 2020 amounting to IDR 64.5 million.
"Subsequent installments have not been paid until the issuance of the last collection letter on July 15, 2020. If the VKL has not been fulfilled by the written deadline, the next collection will be submitted to the State Receivables Affairs Committee, Directorate General of State Assets, Ministry of Finance," said LPDP.
The LPDP said that until August 2020 there were 24,926 scholarship recipients and 11,519 of whom had become alumni.
From this data, 115 cases of alumni who did not return to Indonesia were identified, with details of which 60 cases of alumni have been warned and have returned and performed community service.
A total of 51 cases were in the process of imposing sanctions, while four cases were included in the billing stage, including VKL.
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