Reports Of Alleged Corruption In The Procurement Of Eye Gas Polri Will Be Verified By KPK

Illustration of mass dispersal using tear gas (Unplasm)

JAKARTA - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) ensures that every public report that comes in must be followed up. The Police are no exception in reporting allegations of corruption in the form of inflating or markups on the price of the procurement of tear gas by the Police.

"If there is a report or complaint that comes in, verification will be carried out and when it is complete, it will be studied and collected information," said KPK spokesman Tessa Mahardika to reporters in a written statement, Tuesday, September 3.

After it is confirmed that it is appropriate to follow up, continued Tessa, the anti-corruption commission will process it to the next stage, namely the investigation.

"And if it is not feasible, the complainant will be asked to complete his shortcomings again," said the spokesman with the investigator's background.

The Civil Society Coalition for Police Reform reported allegations of corruption related to the procurement of tear gas by the National Police to the KPK on Monday, September 2 yesterday. Deviations in the process carried out are suspected to have occurred and are said to have harmed the state.

"Regarding the procurement of tear gas, we conveyed that at least there are several things related to the potential for irregularities to occur," said Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) Coordinator Agus Suryanto to reporters at the KPK's Red and White Building, Kuningan Persada, South Jakarta, Monday, September 2.

The first deviation is an allegation of tender conspiracy that leads to a certain brand. Then the second is related to an indication of mark-ups or overprice carried out by the procurement committee," he said.

Agus said that the procurement committee was allegedly not careful when preparing the budget, especially regarding the pepper projectile launcher or the tear gas launchers in 2022 and 2023. "The alleged mark-up indications reached around Rp26 billion," he said.

"Well, we have conveyed that to the KPK leadership, including the public complaint department, so that it will be immediately followed up because once again the budget used is sourced from the state budget," continued Agus.