Minister Of Social Affairs Juliari Batubara Becomes A Corruption Suspect For Bansos COVID-19, KPK Confiscates Rp.14.5 Billion From OTT

KPK press conference regarding the determination of the suspect in the COVID-19 social assistance case (Rizky Adytia / VOI)

JAKARTA - The KPK confiscated tens of billions of money from the hand-arrest operation (OTT) of the Ministry of Social Affairs (Mensos) Juliari Peter Batubara (JPB) and a number of other people. This OTT is related to the corruption of COVID-19 social assistance (bansos) at the Ministry of Social Affairs

The hand-catching operation except for Social Minister Juliari Batubara was carried out on Saturday, December 5 in the morning. The arrests began with information received by the KPK on December 4.

"The KPK team received information from the public about the suspicion of receiving a certain amount of money by State Administrators given by AIM and HS to MJS, AW (Adi Wahyono) and JPB (Juliari P Batubara). Meanwhile, specifically for JPB, the money is given through MJS and SN (JPB confidants), "said KPK Chairman Firli Bahuri in a press conference at the KPK building, Sunday, December 6 in the morning.

The KPK then confiscated the money that had been prepared from the bribes, namely AIM and HS in one of the apartments in Jakarta and Bandung. Rp14.5 billion was kept in a number of suitcases and bags.

"Previously, AIM and HS had prepared money in one of the apartments in Jakarta and Bandung, which was stored in 7 suitcases, 3 backpacks and a small envelope, which amounted to around Rp. 14.5 billion," said Firli.

From the COVID-19 social assistance corruption OTT, money was found in rupiah denominations and foreign currency.

"Each of them is around Rp. 11.9 billion, around USD 171,085 (equivalent to Rp. 2,420 billion) and around SGD 23,000 (equivalent to Rp. 243 million)," said Firli.

In this case, the KPK named 5 suspects. Three suspects who received money from corruption are Social Minister Juliari Peter Batubara (JPB), official commitment maker at the Ministry of Social Affairs Matheus Joko Santoso (MJS) and AW.

Meanwhile, the other two suspects were private providers, namely Ardian IM (AIM) and Hary Sidabuke (HS).

The KPK OTT was carried out in relation to the provision of social assistance for COVID-19 in the form of basic food packages at the Ministry of Social Affairs in 2020 with a value of around Rp. 5.9 trillion with a total of 272 contracts and carried out in 2 periods.

"JPB (Juliari P Batubara) as the Minister of Social Affairs appointed MJS danAW as PPK in the implementation of the project by directly appointing partners and it is suspected that it was agreed to stipulate a fee for each work package which partners must deposit to the Ministry of Social Affairs through MJS," said Firli mentioned the mode of corruption for the social assistance COVID-19 at the Ministry of Social Affairs.