Padang Police Involves Experts in Investigating Corruption Cases for Special School (SLB)

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PADANG - Padang City Police, West Sumatra, involved experts from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology to investigate cases of alleged corruption in the procurement of learning facilities for more than fifty Special Schools (SLB) in the local province.

The case, which is said to have cost state finances up to IDR 1 billion, is currently under investigation by the Corruption Crime Unit of the Padang Police.

"For the process of this case, we involved experts from the Ministry of Education and Culture to explore the case and clarify the procurement project", said Head of Criminal Investigation Unit of the Padang Police, Commissioner Dedy Adriansyah Putra, as quoted by ANTARA, Thursday, September 29.

He revealed that a team of investigators along with experts from the Ministry of Education and Culture had also gone to dozens of schools last week to directly check the learning facilities of dozens of special schools.

"In this case, there are around 150 items of learning facilities held, that's what we check with the experts whether they are by the contract and specifications", he explained.

However, the police have not been able to explain in more detail the results of the examination with the expert for the sake of investigation.

In addition to the Ministry of Education and Culture, the police have also exposed the case together with the Indonesian Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) and requested an audit of the calculation of state losses on a reel basis.

Throughout the process, the Padang Police have examined more than 80 witnesses with various backgrounds, more than fifty of whom are the heads of SLBs throughout West Sumatra.

This is because the procurement of facilities and infrastructure that is suspected to be problematic is intended for more than fifty special schools spread across 18 districts or cities in the local province.

"The examination of the witnesses continues to be carried out in a marathon while waiting for the results of the BPK RI audit to come out", he said.

The budget for the procurement project, in this case, came from the 2019 Special Allocation Fund (DAK) for IDR 4.5 billion, for around 150 items of learning facilities and infrastructure for more than fifty special schools.

The Padang Police has investigated since the beginning of 2022, starting from a community report, then raising it to the investigation level on July 15.

The project is problematic because there are goods that are not by the contract, and specifications, and there is an alleged markup of the goods.

The police have not named a suspect in the case since the case was raised to the investigation stage last July.

Commissioner Dedy stated that his party would thoroughly investigate the alleged corruption case related to the education budget.