New Round Of Cases Of Alleged Corruption Of West Papua's KONI Grant Funds

Illustration of suspected corruption cases. (doc. KPK)

PAPUA - The West Papua Regional Police (Polda) has reopened a case of alleged corruption in the grant budget for the Indonesian National Sports Committee (KONI) West Papua.

In this case, KONI West Papua received a grant of IDR 67.5 billion in cash in the 2021 fiscal year. The billion rupiah grant for the operation of the West Papua contingent to compete in the XX Papua National Sports Week (PON). The Director of Special Criminal Investigation (Dit Reskrimsus) of the West Papua Police, Kombes Pol Romilus Tam, said the investigation in this case would be focused not only on the budget disbursed to KONI for PON in 2021, but also in the fiscal year, namely 2019 and 2020. "Based on the results of the investigation, in 2019, 2020 and 2021, West Papua KONI received assistance from grant funds sourced from BPKAD and Dispora with a total value of Rp227.49 billion," Romilus said in a written statement, Tuesday, December 21 evening.

Romilus explained that the West Papua Regional Police suspected that in the management of the grant funds there was an unlawful act in the form of falsification of receipts related to the use of its budget. This was based on a number of evidences or evidences that had been pocketed by the police. "The evidence has been secured by investigators in the form of a proposal for the application of an activity budget plan from KONI in 2020, a budget determination decree, three bundles of disbursement documents, up to tens of LPj books," said Romilus. He said, of the total Rp227.49 billion grant funds to the West Papua KONI for three fiscal years, it can be detailed that, namely, 2019 amounting to Rp60 billion, 2020 amounting to Rp99.9 billion, and 2021 amounting to Rp67.5 billion. "It is known that allegations of corruption during the three years of the budget are estimated to be state losses of up to Rp20.7 billion," he also said.The Prosecutor's Office Finds Evidence of Deviation Previously, the West Papua High Prosecutor's High Prosecutor's Office (Kejati) has stopped investigating the alleged case of misuse of XX PON grants on West Papuan KONI organizations. The prosecutor's team found no indication of budget abuse that led to crime, so the investigation was temporarily suspended, "said Juniman at a press conference at the West Papua Prosecutor's Office in Manokwari, Thursday, September 22, 2022.

The results of the examination, it is known that the Rp67.5 billion budget has been distributed by the West Papua KONI as submitted, namely to finance 29 sports out of a total of 34 sports at the XX PON event, said Juniman. The total Rp67.5 billion does not include bonuses for athletes who won gold medals. Therefore, the local government still has the obligation to give bonuses to athletes who won gold medals. "From the results of the examination, regarding bonuses for athletes who won gold medals, it is outside of the total budget for PON XX grants managed by the West Papua KONI, and local governments are required to make payments," said the Head of West Papua Prosecutor's Office. also said that the termination of the case investigation process was not the end of a law enforcement effort, but in order to maintain public trust, the West Papua Prosecutor's Office will continue to await the latest reports from the public. "If there is a recent report accompanied by strong evidence regarding the XX PON grant in the West Papua KONI organization, then this case will be re-disclosured whenever it is," he said.