Insufficient Evidence, Prosecutors Stop The Padang DPRD Official Travel Case

Head of State Attorney Padang Ranu Subroto (BETWEEN / Fathul Abdi)

JAKARTA - The Padang District Prosecutor's Office, West Sumatra (West Sumatra), has stopped investigating a case of alleged misappropriation of official travel by a number of members of the local Regional Representative Council (DPRD).

"We have stopped the case handling process because there is insufficient evidence, as well as to provide legal certainty for the parties," said Head of the Padang District Attorney, Ranu Subroto, accompanied by Head of Intelligence, Yuni Hariman, in Padang, as reported by Antara, Tuesday, December 22.

He said that in terminating the handling of the case, the prosecutor's investigating team had considered various aspects such as the auditor's opinion and the amount of financial loss to the state.

Given the position of the case actually originated from the findings of the Republic of Indonesia BPK which were forwarded to the Government Internal Supervisory Apparatus (APIP) on the use of transportation funds for the 2017 and 2018 fiscal years, and the use of official travel expenditures for the 2017 fiscal year.

For the transportation allowance fund, it was found that Rp.519,350,000 was found, then this was followed up with a refund to the regional treasury of Rp.499,750,000.

From this return, the remaining money that must be returned is IDR 19,600,000.

As for the official travel budget for the 2017 fiscal year, the findings were Rp.85,700,000, then followed up with a refund to the regional treasury of Rp.73,400,000.

The remaining money that must be returned is IDR 12,300,000, so if you add up the remaining transportation allowance funds of IDR 19,600,000 it becomes IDR 31,900,000.

"Because it has not been returned, APIP submitted the findings to the prosecutor's office for follow-up, then we started an investigation in March 2019," he said.

Thanks to the process carried out by the AGO, he said, the three council members who had the obligation to pay for the remainder of the findings handed over money to be deposited in the regional treasury.

With the refund made, the state loss amounting to Rp.31,900,000 was covered and there was a recovery, so the case process was terminated.

He said the decision was taken by the prosecutor's office in order to provide legal certainty to the public so that the handling of a case does not drag on.

If calculated from the time the case entered the investigation stage until now, the board member's official service trip has taken nearly two years.

"According to the leadership's instructions, that the handling of cases carried out by the prosecutor must fulfill a sense of justice and provide legal certainty to the public," he said.