Defense Minister Prabowo Finally Opens Voice On The Case Of The Orbit Slot Satellite, Asks BPKP To Conduct An Audit

Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto while giving a press statement after the 2022 Ministry of Defense Leadership Meeting (Rapim) at the Ministry of Defense Office / Antara

JAKARTA - Minister of Defense (Menhan) Prabowo Subianto asked the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP) to conduct an audit related to the procurement of the 123 East Longitude Orbit Satellite at the Ministry of Defense (Kemenhan). "We have asked BPKP to conduct an audit," Prabowo said after the meeting. The leadership (Rapim) of the Ministry of Defense in 2022, at the Ministry of Defense Office, Jakarta, reported by Antara, Thursday, January 20. Not only does BPKP carry out audits, Prabowo said, the Defense Ministry also conducts internal audits. "This satellite issue is still being processed," said Prabowo. Prabowo. Previously, the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menko Polhukam) Mahfud MD mentioned an alleged violation of the law in the Satellite Project of the Ministry of Defense (Kemhan).

"Alleged violations related to the Defense Communications Satellite Project (Satkomhan) in 2015," said Mahfud at a press conference at the Office of the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Jakarta, Thursday, January 13. Orbit is 123 degrees East Longitude (BT) so that there is a vacancy in management by Indonesia. Based on the regulations of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), countries that have received management rights will be given three years to fill out the Orbit Slot. If it is not fulfilled, the right to manage Slot Orbit will be automatically terminated and can be used by other countries.

To fill the void in the management of the 123 degrees east long orbital slot, said Mahfud, the Ministry of Communication and Information (Kominfo) has fulfilled the request of the Ministry of Defense (Kemhan) to obtain the right to manage the 123 degree east long orbital slot to build a defense communications satellite (Satkomhan).

The Ministry of Defense then made a lease contract for the Artemis Satellite, which is a "floater" (temporary satellite to fill the orbit), belonging to Avanti Communication Limited (Avanti), on December 6, 2015, although the approval for the use of the Orbit Slot 123 degrees east from the Communications and Information Technology was only issued on January 29, 2016. However, the Ministry of Defense on June 25, 2018 returned the rights to manage the Orbit Slot 123 degrees east to Kominfo. On December 10, 2018, Kominfo issued a decision regarding the Right to Use Indonesian Satellite Filing at Orbit 123 degrees for "Filing" the Garuda-2 and Nusantara-A1-A Satellites to PT Dini Nusa Kusuma (PT DNK). However, PT DNK was unable to complete the problem of residues of the Ministry of Defense in the procurement of the Satkomhan. At the time of contracting with Avanti in 2015, the Ministry of Defense did not yet have a budget for this purpose. "The contracts were carried out to make defense communication satellites with a very large value even though the budget did not yet exist," he said.

To build the Satkomhan, the Ministry of Defense signed contracts with Navayo, Airbus, Detente, Hogan Lovel, and Telesat for the period 2015-2016, the budget for which was not yet available in 2015, while in 2016 the budget was available, but the Ministry of Defense did "self-blocking" Then, Avanti sued at the London Court of International Arbitration because the Ministry of Defense did not pay the satellite lease in accordance with the signed contract value. consultant fees, and satellite "filing" costs are equivalent to Rp. 515 billion," he said. The ruling stated that the government was required to pay $20.9 million. "The 20 million US dollars is worth Rp. 304 billion," he explained. Mahfud estimates that this loss will increase because there are other companies that have signed contracts with the Ministry of Defense and have not filed a lawsuit. "The state also has the potential to be billed again by AirBus, Detente, Hogan Lovel, and Telesat. So we have a lot of burdens if this is not resolved immediately," said the Minister of Defense under President Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur).

For his actions, the perpetrators were subject to articles 81 and 82 of Law No. 35 of the Republic of Indonesia concerning Child Protection with the threat of imprisonment for up to 15 years.