Not Only State Campus, KPK Alleged Sale And Purchase Of Benches Happened At State High Schools

Illustration of face-to-face learning activities (PTM) at a public high school in October 2021. (ANTARA-Walda M)

JAKARTA - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has detected the practice of bribery in state high schools (SMA) to secure seats for new students. They often hear rumors like this.

"Actually, it's not just universities. In the process of accepting new students in high school, that's the rumor," said KPK Deputy Chairman Alexander Marwata to reporters quoted from the Indonesian KPK YouTube, Tuesday, August 23.

Alexander said the mode used was the addition of the number of online quotas. From there, the practice of bribery was suspected to have taken place.

"How many quotas are received online, but in practice, if we actually check, if we check there is actually an increase in the amount received online," he said.

The KPK, continued Alexander, is concerned about corruption in the world of education. In fact, schools and colleges should be a place to shape the character of a culture of anti-corruption and integrity.

However, they did not want to be discouraged. "(That's the goal, ed) we have a deputy for education, one of which is how we can encourage the creation of an anti-corruption culture and a culture of integrity, especially at the level of formal education," said Alexander.

"Hopefully it's not just lip service, rhetoric, when the campus invites us to socialize anti-corruption culture, it turns out that the practice is still there," he continued.

The KPK has just investigated allegations of bribery in the education environment. They have just named four suspects in the alleged bribery of accepting new students at the University of Lampung in 2022.

The determination of the suspect began with the arrest operations carried out in Lampung, Bandung and Bali. The suspects involved in this case are the Chancellor of the University of Lampung 2020-2024 Karomani; Vice Chancellor I for Academic Affairs, University of Lampung Heryandi; Chairman of the Senate of the University of Lampung Muhammad Basri; and private Andi Desfiandi.

In this case, Karomani is suspected of fixing the price of seats for prospective new students on his campus at a price ranging from Rp. 100 million to Rp. 350 million when carrying out the Independent Selection for Entrance to the University of Lampung (Simanila). This request was made after Heryandi and Muhammad Basri personally selected the student's parents' ability to pay.

As for one of the families of the prospective Simanila participants, Andi then took the initiative to pay after his family was accepted as a student because of Karomani's assistance. He then handed over Rp150 million in cash in Lampung which was taken by a lecturer, namely Mualimin.

From his actions, Karomani allegedly managed to collect Rp603 million from Mualimin which was then used for personal purposes amounting to Rp575 million.

Meanwhile, from Muhammad Basri and Budi Sutomo who are Head of the Planning and Public Relations Bureau at the University of Lampung, it is suspected that the total money received by Karomani reached Rp. 4.4 billion. This money is then transferred to savings deposits, gold bars, and some are still in cash.