The Attorney General's Office Examines Ministry Of Agriculture Employees And The Ministry Of Industry Regarding Sugar Importation Cases

Head of the Legal Information Center (Kapuspenkum) of the Attorney General's Office I Ketut Sumedana (left). BETWEEN PHOTOS/M Risyal Hidayat/nym/aa.

JAKARTA - Investigators from the Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes at the Attorney General's Office examined five witnesses in the investigation into the alleged corruption case of sugar importation from 2015 to 2023 at the Ministry of Trade.

Head of the Legal Information Center (Kapuspenkum) of the Attorney General's Office, Ketut Sumedana, said the five witnesses consisted of Kasubdit and Kasi at the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Industry.

The five witnesses examined, Edy Sutopo (ES) as the Head of the Industry Sub-Directorate for Plantation Results of the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin), Edy Endar Sriyono (EES) once the Head of Standardization at the Directorate of the Food, Marine Products and Fisheries Industry of the Ministry of Industry, and Cecep Saepul Rahman (CP) as the Young Expert Plan for the Directorate of Food Industry, Marine Products, and Fisheries of the Ministry of Industry. Then two witnesses from the Ministry of Agriculture (Kementan), namely Gede Wirasuta (GW) as the Head of Sub-Directorate for Other Sugar and Sweetizer Plants, as well as Haris Darmawan (HD) as the Head of Sub-Directorate for Other Plants and Sweetizers at the Directorate of Sebuah and Spices, Directorate General of Plantation.

"The witness examination was carried out to strengthen the evidence and complete the filing in the case," said Sumedana.

Previously, on Tuesday (10/10), investigators examined three witnesses still from the ministry's environment, namely Hasuddin Rumra (HR) as Head of the Evaluation and Reporting Section of the Secretariat of the Food Security Agency, Arif Sulistiyo (US) as Director of Imports of the Ministry of Trade, and Ronald Evan Zigler Tambunan (REZT) as Chair of the Ministry of Agriculture's Spice Plant Group.

The examination of witnesses began on Monday (9/10), two witnesses from the ministry were examined, namely the Head of the Legal Bureau of the Ministry of Trade with the initials SH and the Coordinator for Supervision of Goods and Important Goods of the Ministry of Trade with the initials NMKD.

Investigators found two sufficient preliminary pieces of evidence on suspicion of abuse of authority in sugar importation activities at the Ministry of Trade.

"The actions include, among others, allegedly in the context of fulfilling national sugar stocks and stability of national sugar prices," said the Director of Investigation at Jampidsus Kuntadi, Tuesday (3/10).

The Ministry of Trade is suspected of committing illegal acts by issuing the approval of imports of raw crystal sugar (GKM) in question to be processed into white crystal sugar (GKP) to parties suspected of being authorized.

In addition, he continued, the Ministry of Trade is suspected of having granted import permits exceeding the maximum quota limit required by the government.

In this case, investigators have conducted searches at the Ministry of Trade office and the Office of PT Perusahaan Perdagangan Indonesia (PPI) in Central Jakarta.

At the Office of the Ministry of Trade, the investigative team conducted a search of the Ministerial Administration Room, Director of Imports, and the Working Room of the Chairperson of the Agricultural Product Import Team.

Meanwhile, at the PPI Office, the investigative team conducted a search of the Archives Room and the PT PPI Accounting and Finance Division.

From the searches at the two locations, investigators confiscated a number of electronic evidence related to criminal incidents and documents.