5 Lhokseumawe City Government Officials Charged With Corruption Of IDR 3.15 Billion Information Tax

The defendant in the criminal act of corruption in the street lighting tax attended the trial at the Corruption Court at the Banda Aceh District Court in Banda Aceh, Monday (1/4/2024). ANTARA/M Haris SA

The public prosecutor charged five Lhokseumawe City Government officials, Aceh, with committing a criminal act of corruption in the street lighting tax with state losses reaching Rp3.15 billion.

The indictment was read out by Public Prosecutor Saifuddin and his friends at the trial at the Corruption Court at the Banda Aceh District Court, Monday, April 1.

The five officials are Mawardi Yusuf as Head of the Lhokseumawe City Regional Financial Management Agency (BPKD) 2020-2022, Azwar as Head of the Lhokseumawe City BPKD 2018-2020.

Then Asriana as Head of the Lhokseumawe City BPKD Financial Subdivision, Sulaiman as Treasurer of the Lhokseumawe City BPKD Expenditure, and Muhammad Dahri as the Budget User Authority at the Lhokseumawe City BPKD.

The prosecutor in his indictment stated that the defendants distributed and received a sum of money from incentives for collecting street lighting taxes by PLN.

According to the prosecutor, the defendants did not have the right to receive incentives from public street lighting taxes because PLN did collect public street lighting taxes, not the defendants.

"The street light tax collection was carried out by PLN so that the defendants were not entitled to receive incentives from collecting the street lighting tax," said the prosecutor as quoted by ANTARA.

The public prosecutor revealed that PLN from 2018 to 2022 deposited a road lighting tax at the Lhokseumawe City Regional Financial Management Agency (BPKD) Office with a total amount of more than Rp72 billion.

The money from the street lighting tax collected by PLN should have been deposited into the regional treasury as local revenue. However, the defendants made a policy by distributing it as a collection incentive.

"The actions of the defendants resulted in state financial losses based on the results of the calculation of state audit institutions reaching Rp3.15 billion," said the Public Prosecutor.

After hearing the prosecutor's indictment, the panel of judges asked the defendants and legal advisers whether to file an exception or object to the prosecutor's indictment.

The defendant and his legal adviser stated that they would file an exception. The panel of judges continued the trial on April 5, 2024 with the agenda of hearing the defendant's exception.