KPK Detains Commissioner And Director Of Arta Niaga Nusantara Related To Corruption In Bengkalis

Illustration (Photo: Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) detained the Commissioner of PT Arta Niaga Nusantara, Handoko Setiono, and the Director of PT Arta Niaga Nusantara, Melia Boentaran. They are suspects in the case of alleged corruption in the multi-year project to improve the Bukit Batu-Siak Kecil Ring Road, the budget of Bengkalis in 2013-2015.

KPK Deputy Chairman Lili Pintauli Siregar said the two suspects would be detained in two different detention centers for the next 20 days or until 24 February.

"For investigations, the KPK detained each of the suspects for 20 days from February 5 to February 24", said Lili during a press conference on the detention of suspects which was broadcast on the KPK RI YouTube account, Friday, February 5.

Handoko, he said, would be detained at the Pomdam Jaya Detention Center while Melia would later be detained at the KPK's Red and White House Prison. It's just that, the two of them will first carry out independent isolation to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at the KPK Detention Center Kavling C1 Branch or the old KPK Building.

"As an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the KPK detention center, the suspects will first undergo independent isolation for 14 days at the Rutan KPK Kavling C1", he said.

In this case, Handoko said that the KPK played an active role during the auction process to win over his company. In fact, since the beginning, the company has been disqualified in the prequalification stage.

"However, with the joint engineering with several parties in the Bengkalis PUPR Office, various fictitious tender documents made PT ANN (Arta Niaga Nusantara) declared the winner of the job tender", explained Lili.

Meanwhile, Melia said that the KPK played an active role in conducting various meetings and giving money to several officials at the Bengkalis Regency PUPR Office. The goal, so that this company can win the project.

"In this project, it is suspected that various manipulations of project data were found and the implementation of work that did not comply with the specified specifications", said Lili.

As a result, this project then caused state losses of up to IDR 156 billion of the total contract value of IDR 265 billion.

Previously, in the same case, the KPK had also named M. Nasir who was the policymaker in this project a suspect and he was found guilty according to the Supreme Court decision.

Meanwhile, the number of witnesses examined in this case has reached 116, including officials related to budgeting, officials related to procurement, officials related to project bidding, officials related to project implementation, private parties consisting of suppliers and subcontractors involved in the project to improve the Bukit Batu-Siak Kecil Ring Road, Bengkalis.