NTB Investigators And BPKP Check Maraton MSMEs Providers Of COVID-19 Masks

Head of Satreskrim Mataram Police Commissioner I Made Yogi Purusa Utama. (ANTARA/Dhimas B.P.)

Mataram Police Investigators together with the auditor of the West Nusa Tenggara Representative's Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP) questioned marathonly the providers of COVID-19 masks for the 2020 procurement program.

Kasatreskrim Mataram Police Commissioner I Made Yogi Purusa Utama said that the examination of mask providers from micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) was part of an effort to calculate state financial losses in the investigation into the alleged corruption case in the procurement of COVID-19 masks.

"So, the Mataram City area is all over. Now it has arrived in East Lombok. When it is finished, it will continue to Sumbawa Island," said Yogi in Mataram, quoted from Antara, Tuesday, September 24.

He ensured that the MSME actors involved in the procurement of masks to deal with the spread of COVID-19 during the pandemic amounted to 100 groups.

MSME actors involved are spread across almost all regencies/cities in West Nusa Tenggara Province.

Allegations of corruption lead to fictitious procurement, MSMEs that do not have legality as providers in the field of projection, a number of groups that buy finished goods from Java Island, and arrangements by certain parties in the procurement process.

Regarding this, Yogi has not disclosed the certainty of the alleged corruption crime that strengthens the investigation steps.

"We'll just wait for the results of the audit, then we can convey the full details," he said.

Yogi ensured that the results of the NTB BPKP audit would strengthen the evidence in revealing the party responsible for the alleged misappropriation in the mask procurement process.

BPKP NTB Representatives recorded the issuance of an audit letter for calculating state financial losses on July 3, 2024. The issuance of the letter is a follow-up to the case title of police investigators with BPKP.

The COVID-19 mask procurement project, which is suspected to be problematic, will run in 2020. The government provides a budget of IDR 12.3 billion.

The funds came from the results of a budget refocusing policy during the pandemic. Project work is under the NTB Provincial Cooperatives and MSMEs Office.

The Mataram Police carried out an investigation since early January 2023, then the status of handling to the investigation stage took place in mid-September 2023.