West Sumatra Prosecutor's Office Investigate Allegations Of Corruption In BPBD COVID-19 Funds

Assistant for Special Crimes at the West Sumatra Prosecutor's Office, Hadiman. BETWEEN Fathul Abdi

The West Sumatra High Prosecutor's Office (West Sumatra) is investigating a case of alleged corruption in COVID-19 funds at the local provincial Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD).

"The process has been raised to the investigation stage last April, until now the number of witnesses who have been examined is nineteen people," said Assistant for Special Crimes at the West Sumatra Attorney General's Office Hadiman in Padang, reported by ANTARA, Thursday, May 30.

He mentioned that the dozens of witnesses examined by the investigative team came from various backgrounds ranging from the West Sumatra BPBD, the Inspectorate, the procurement partners, and one expert.

Haliman explained that the witness examination was carried out in a marathon, and his party had also asked for the calculation of state financial losses to the West Sumatra Prosecutor's Internal Auditor.

"The internal auditor team is calculating state losses in this case, as soon as the results come out we will immediately determine the suspect," he said.

He emphasized that the West Sumatra Prosecutor's Office would not indiscriminately ensnare people who were guilty and needed to be legally held accountable.

"If there is sufficient evidence and the results of the audit come out, the suspect will be immediately determined and detained," he said.

Haliman explained that the case was related to allegations of corruption in the procurement of face shields when the COVID-19 pandemic hit some time ago.

At that time there was a budget disbursed by the local provincial government in handling COVID-19 reaching hundreds of billions, hundreds of contracts, and hundreds of products.

"From that many contracts we then investigated on two contracts, the result was that we found an alleged price inflation (markup)," he explained.

The budget ceiling for the two procurement contracts is known to reach Rp3.9 billion in the 2020 fiscal year.