Deputy Chairman Of The Corruption Eradication Commission Amini Receives Information On The Value Of Bansos COVID-19 'Circumcised' IDR 100,000

Deputy Chairperson of the KPK Alexander Marwata (Photo; KPK Doc)

JAKARTA - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) admits that it received information about social assistance funds for economic recovery due to COVID-19 which was 'circumcised' of more than IDR 10,000 for each food package.

Deputy Chairman of the KPK, Alexander Marwata, agreed that his party received information that the circumcised funds from each food package were Rp. 100,000 of the value of each Rp. 300 thousand.

"If the information is outside, that's from Rp. 300,000, at most Rp. 200 (thousand), he said, right? Said Alex at the KPK building, Jakarta, Monday, December 14.

Alex said that his party would explore this information. "In principle, of course, every information, even the smallest information, will be investigated by investigators," said Alex.

Alex said that so far investigators have investigated the value of Rp. 10,000 per package. However, Alex emphasized that his party would continue to develop and investigate the suspected bribery case for the social assistance procurement that ensnared Juliari and the four other suspects.

The MAKI Coordinator, Boyamin Saiman, previously suspected that the value misused by the Minister of Social Affairs (Mensos) Juliari P. Batubara and the four other suspects reached Rp. 33,000 per package of social assistance or higher than what the KPK alleged was worth Rp. 10,000 per package.

"Maybe if MAKI has evidence (quoted value of Rp. 33,000) or what can be communicated to the investigators or I don't know whether the investigators already know about it," said Alex.

Apart from the question of the "circumcised" value, Alex said investigators are currently still investigating vendors or companies that are partners of the Ministry of Social Affairs in the procurement and distribution of social assistance for the community. It is also possible that the partners appointed by the Ministry of Social Affairs are not feasible.

"Who are the vendors distributing the groceries right, are they feasible, that means, does he have the business, procure the basic needs, or suddenly the company was just established and then immediately got the work. But then he (the vendor) ) Submit it to another party, he only wants to get a fee, and we have to understand that, "said Alex.

So far, there are around 272 contracts related to the procurement and distribution of social assistance packages in the form of basic foodstuffs for the Jabodetabek area that are being investigated by KPK investigators. Alex confirmed that the KPK will explore the vendor selection process to the distribution of social assistance to the community.

"So in principle there are 272 contracts, if I'm not mistaken, all of them must be explored. Who got the job, where did he get the job, or how did he get the job and did he carry out the distribution of the staples or just, that was just the flag capital, sub-right "All of this must be explored. We want to see how much of the budget actually reaches the public," he said.

It is known, the KPK appointed Social Minister Juliari P. Batubara along with Adi Wahyono and Matheus Joko Santoso as the Ministry of Social Affairs Commitment Making Officer (PPK) and two private parties named Ardian IM and Harry Sidabuke as suspects in the case of suspected bribery for social assistance in the Jabodetabek area for handling Covid-19.

Juliari and two of his subordinates are suspected of receiving bribes worth around Rp. 17 billion from Ardian and Harry as partners of the Ministry of Social Affairs in procuring COVID-19 social assistance packages for the Jabodetabek area in 2020.

This case stems from the procurement of social assistance for handling COVID-19 in the form of food packages at the Ministry of Social Affairs in 2020 with a value of around Rp.5.9 trillion with a total of 272 procurement contracts and carried out in two periods.

Juliari as the Minister of Social Affairs appointed Matheus Joko Santoso and Adi Wahyono as Commitment Making Officers in the implementation of the project by directly appointing partners. It is suspected that there was a "fee" for each work package that the partners had to pay to the Ministry of Social Affairs through Matheus.