Banten Police Reveals Corruption Cases Of The Smart Indonesia Program, State Loss Rp1.3 Billion

Banten Police revealed a corruption case of the Smart Indonesia Program (PIP) in Serang City in the 2021 fiscal year with state losses reaching Rp1.3 billion at the Banten Police Hall, Wednesday (7/2/2024). (ANTARA/Desi Purnama Sari)

SERANG - Banten Police revealed a corruption case of the Smart Indonesia Program (PIP) in Serang City in the 2021 fiscal year with state losses reaching Rp1.3 billion.

Wadirkrimsus Banten Police AKBP Wiwin Setiawan said this case stemmed from a public report to the Banten Police extortion saber team.

"Getting the report, the team immediately carried out an investigation and investigation until they found a cut in PIP funds carried out by unscrupulous principals and private parties," he said as quoted by ANTARA, Wednesday, February 7.

Wiwin said that he had named two suspects, namely TS (63), the former Head of Elementary School and former Chairman of PGRI, Kasemen District, Serang City, and IT (46) from the private sector in the case of cutting PIP funds.

"The modus operandi carried out by the suspect TI admitted that he was close to experts from Commission X of the DPR RI who could smooth out the PIP budget cuts," he said.

Wiwin said that the TI and TS suspects made an agreement to cut the PIP budget by 40 percent per student for personal gain. Whereas the PIP program according to the provisions is intended for student operational costs.

"So 30 percent for IT and 10 percent for TS, while 60 percent is managed by schools that students should receive as student deposits," he said.

The PIP funds cut by the two suspects came from 24 SDN in Serang City, which should have been for 3,325 students. From these cuts, both of them made a profit of Rp. 723 million so that the state suffered a loss of Rp. 1.3 billion.

"The funds were then disbursed through Bank BRI accompanied by TS. Investigators saved the state Rp802 million and secured evidence of various files," he said.

Now the two suspects have been detained at the Banten Police Detention Center and will be transferred to the Banten High Prosecutor's Office.

Both were charged with Article 2 paragraph 1 and Article 3 of Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Corruption in conjunction with Law Number 20 of 2001 with the threat of life imprisonment or a minimum of 4 years and a maximum of 20 years.