The Attorney General's Office Investigate Allegations Of Corruption In The Construction Of The Besitang-Langsa Railway

Director of Investigation Jampidsus Kuntadi (left) and Kapuspenkum Attorney General Ketut Sumedana/ANTARA/Laily Rahmawaty

JAKARTA - Investigators from the Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes (Jampidsus) at the Attorney General's Office are investigating allegations of corruption in the Beista-Langsa Railway (KA) construction project, North Sumatra, worth IDR 1.3 trillion.

The Director of Investigation at the Jampidsus Attorney General's Office, Kuntadi, said that his party had raised the status of case handling from investigation to investigation stage.

"Regarding the alleged corruption in the construction of the Besitang-Langsa railway line at the Class I Railway Engineering Center in Medan, 2017-2023, it was worth IDR 1.3 trillion," Kuntadi said as quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, October 3.

From the investigation and examination carried out, the team believes that they have found sufficient preliminary evidence so that it is concluded that a criminal act has occurred in the case.

The modus operandi carried out is that the parties suspected of being involved have engineered the implementation of the project by dividing the value of the project in a nominal way to be smaller. "The goal is to avoid the implementation of the auction," he said.

In addition, illegally, the location of the railway construction work was also moved so that it was not in accordance with the location that had been determined in the contract. This was done in order to make a profit.

"The perpetrators are suspected of having diverted the railway line from what has been stipulated in the contract with the intention of benefiting certain parties. So that as a result of these actions it is suspected that they have harmed state finances," said Kuntadi.

Meanwhile, the Head of the Legal Information Center (Kapuspenkum) of the Attorney General's Office, Ketut Sumedana, added that in this case investigators have not yet named a suspect and the value of financial losses is being calculated.

"It was conveyed by the Director of Investigation earlier that the new case was investigated, so a new criminal incident was discovered. The suspects have not been determined, the losses are uncertain. Media colleagues can continue to monitor it," said Sumedana. Case of alleged corruption in the Beista-Langsa Railway (KA) construction project, North Sumatra is one of three new cases that Jampidsus, the Attorney General's Office. Other cases, allegations of abuse of sugar import authority at the Ministry of Trade and allegations of corruption in the engineering of fictitious projects at PT Sigma Cipta Caraka 2017-2018.