East Flores District Attorney Detains COVID-19 Fund Corruption Suspect

Investigators from the East Flores District Attorney's Office (Kejari), East Nusa Tenggara have detained the suspect Petronela Letek Toda (left) Treasurer of the East Flores Regency BPBD Office, Friday (14/10/2022). BETWEEN/HO-NTT High Prosecutor's Office

KUPANG - Investigators of corruption at the East Flores District Attorney (Kejari), East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) detained Petronela Letek Toda, treasurer of the Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) of East Flores Regency, a suspect in the misuse of funds for handling COVID-19 in 2020.

"In this case, the state cost IDR 1.5 billion. After investigators conducted an examination of Petronela Letek Toda as a suspect, the person concerned was immediately detained today", said the Head of the Legal Information and Public Relations Section of the NTT High Prosecutor's Office, Abdul Hakim, in Kupang, as reported by ANTARA, Friday, October 14.

He said the arrest of the suspect Petronela Letek Toda was carried out by investigators for investigation, especially since she had run away for two weeks, so she was included in the list of people wanted by the East Flores District Attorney because she never came to fulfill the investigator's summons to be questioned as a suspect.

According to him, the suspect Petronela Letek Toda has been detained by investigators from the East Flores District Attorney at the Larantuka Detention Center for 20 days.

Petronela Letek Toda was arrested by the Mobile Investigation Team of the Bima Police of the NTB Police when the suspect was hiding in a resident's house in Simpasai Village, Monta District, Bima Regency on Wednesday, October 12 at around 17.30 WITA.

"After the suspect was brought to Larantuka, the capital city of East Flores Regency, he immediately underwent an examination by the prosecutor's investigator as a suspect related to the alleged corruption case in the use of COVID-19 funds for the 2020 FY, and after being examined, he was immediately detained", said Abdul Hakim.

In the case of the use of COVID-19 funds in East Flores Regency, the prosecutor's investigators have named three suspects, namely the Treasurer of the Petronela BPBD Office, Lete Toda, the Head of the BPBD of the East Flores Regency, Alfons Betan, and the Regional Secretary of the East Flores Regency, Paulus Igo Geroda.

The three suspects, according to him, have all been detained by investigators from the East Flores Kejari.

The case of alleged corruption in the handling of COVID-19 funds in 2020 began when refocusing on activities and reallocating the budget to accelerate the handling of COVID-19 The East Flores Regency Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) office received an unexpected budget allocation of IDR 6.5 billion for disaster emergency management.

However, he said, the accountability report was not supported by evidence by the applicable rules in the report on the use of funds for handling COVID-19.