DPO Corruption People's Market Development Successfully Arrested By West Papua Prosecutor's Office

Head of West Papua High Prosecutor's Office Harli Siregar (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - JB, a suspect in the alleged corruption case in the construction of the people's market in Babo District, Teluk Bintuni Regency, which has been included in the wanted list (DPO) has been successfully secured by the West Papua High Prosecutor's Fugitive Arrest Team (Kejati).

"One DPO of the Bintuni Bay District Attorney has been secured in Makassar City, South Sulawesi," said West Papua Prosecutor's Office Head Harli Siregar in Manokwari, quoted from ANTARA, Saturday, April 20.

He explained that JB was named a suspect based on the Letter of the Head of the Teluk Bintuni District Attorney Number Kep-22/R.2.13//Fd.1/06/2022 related to the alleged corruption case of the people's market development project at the Industry Trade Office of Cooperatives and SME Teluk Bintuni in 2018.

As the controller of the use of the budget, the suspect took the initiative to regulate all work implementation but the project was not completed so it could not be handed over to the Industry Trade Office for Cooperatives and SMEs Teluk Bintuni.

"The budget for the people's market development in Babo District comes from the APBN worth Rp. 6 billion," said Harli.

He said that the results of the audit from the West Papua Representative Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP) Number SR-123/PW27/5/2022, the implementation of the people's market development project in Babo District resulted in state losses of Rp3.03 billion.

In the project, the convict Melianus Jensei was also involved as a commitment-making official (PPK), the signing official of the payment order (PPSPM) for the convict Tera Ramar, and the Head of the Branch of PT Fikri Bangun Persada, the defendant Martinus Senopadang.

"The volume of physical work in the field is not in accordance with the contract value of the people's market development project work," explained Harli.

He said the Teluk Bintuni District Attorney's Office had sent summons five times, but the suspect JB was not cooperative and ignored the letter so he was included in the DPO.

The West Papua High Prosecutor's Office then issued a intelligence operation order (security) on May 24, 2023, which was supported by the Attorney General's Office's Tabur Team to search for the suspect JB.

"For eight months we continued to search for the whereabouts of JB who often moved to several areas such as Bogor, Bandung, and Sleman," he explained.

After detecting JB's whereabouts in Makassar City, he said, the West Papua High Prosecutor's Team immediately coordinated with the South Sulawesi High Prosecutor's Office to secure the suspect.

"The suspect was flown to Manokwari and then handed over to the Teluk Bintuni District Attorney Investigator," said Harli.