The Reason Why Juliari Batubara Was Not Presented In The Reconstruction Of The Social Assistance Bribery Case

Reconstruction of Bansos bribes (Photo: Wardhani Tsa Tsa / VOI)

JAKARTA - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) explained the reason for the former Minister of Social Affairs (Mensos) Juliari Peter Batubara was absent on the reconstruction of the bribery case for the social assistance of COVID-19 (bansos). In fact, in this bribery case, the PDI-P politician was a suspect.

According to the Corruption Eradication Commission spokesperson for the prosecution of Ali Fikri, Juliari was deliberately not present because the reconstruction of the case was focused on finding out what Harry Sidabuke (HS) and Ardian IM (AIM) had done as the givers.

"The current reconstruction is focused on clarifying the series of actions of the givers in the suspect's case on behalf of the HS and AIM givers. So for JPB (Juliari Peter Batubara) as the suspect who received this is not currently being presented", Ali said in his written statement, Monday, February 1.

It is known that the Corruption Eradication Commission is currently carrying out the reconstruction of the COVID-19 social assistance bribery case. This reconstruction activity was carried out since 12.10 pm by presenting three suspects.

The three suspects who were presented in the reconstruction were the Ministry of Social's commitment maker Matheus Joko Santoso, Adi Wahyono, and a private party, Harry Sidabuke.

As reported previously, the Corruption Eradication Commission named a number of suspects in connection with the alleged corruption case of social assistance food packages for the handling of COVID-19 in the Jabodetabek area including the non-active Social Minister Juliari Batubara.

Apart from Juliari, the Corruption Eradication Commission also named four other suspects, namely the Commitment Making Officer at the Ministry of Social Affairs (PPK) MJS and AW as the recipient of the bribe and AIM and HS as the giver of the bribe.

This case began when Juliari appointed two commitment-making officials (PPK) Matheus Joko Santoso and Adi to carry out this project by directly appointing partners. The Corruption Eradication Commission suspects that it was agreed that there was a fee from the work package that partners had to pay to the Ministry of Social Affairs.

As for the fee for each COVID-19 social assistance package that Matheus and Adi agreed to, it was IDR 10,000 from a value of IDR 300 thousand.

Matheus and Adi then made work contracts with several suppliers as partners for providing social assistance in May-November 2020. The partners chosen were AIM, HS, and PT Rajawali Parama Indonesia or PT RPI which allegedly belonged to Matheus and whose appointment was known to Juliari.

In the first phase of the distribution of social assistance, a fee of IDR 12 billion is suspected. Matheus gave around IDR 8.2 billion in cash to Juliari through Adi which was then used to meet personal needs.

In this silent operation, the Corruption Eradication Commission also confiscated evidence in the form of money that had been prepared from the bribes, namely AIM and HS in one of the apartments in Jakarta and Bandung. IDR 14.5 billion was kept in a number of suitcases and bags and consisted of Rupiah denominations and foreign currency.