Unila's New Student Admission Bribery In Dollars And Euros?

Luxurious house belonging to the Chancellor of Unila Karomani which was newly built in 2020 and occupied in July 2022 (ANTARA/Dian Hadiyatna)

JAKARTA - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) found foreign currency denominations of Singapore dollars and euros when they searched the house of the Chancellor of the University of Lampung (Unila) Karomani and those related to the alleged bribery of accepting new students at Unila.

This finding confirms that Karomani did not only accept bribes in rupiah currency. The Singapore dollar and euro denominations were found by investigators on Wednesday, August 24 yesterday.

"(Found the dollar, red) Singapore and the euro," said Head of the KPK News Section, Ali Fikri in a written statement, Thursday, August 25.

Ali has not specified the amount of money. He only said investigators would carry out an analysis followed by a confiscation.

"The investigative team will analyze and confiscate the evidence to be included in the suspect's case file," he said.

Previously, the KPK named four suspects for alleged bribery of accepting new students at the University of Lampung in 2022. The determination of these suspects began with arresting 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 allegedly set the price for prospective new students at his campus in the range of 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.

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.