KPK Opens New Investigation On Bribery Case For Social Assistance Of The Social Affairs Ministry, Who Is Targeted?

Illustration (Irfan Meidianto/VOI)

JAKARTA - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) opened a new investigation regarding the alleged corruption case of COVID-19 social assistance (bansos) at the Ministry of Social Affairs.

"We know the information that the procurement (social assistance, ed) has been given. So, we are taking it back for an investigation," said KPK Deputy for Enforcement and Execution, Karyoto in a press conference broadcast on YouTube by the Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission, Tuesday, April 6.

Then who is being targeted by the KPK in this investigation? Unfortunately, Karyoto doesn't want to open it yet. He said, his party would open this after going to the investigation.

"In my investigation, I must comply with the principles. I will not tell anything else," said Karyoto

He said, in the future, the KPK will focus on calling on social assistance providers. This was done as a step to develop the case that ensnared former Social Minister Juliari Peter Batubara.

From this information, the KPK hopes that matters relating to the appointment of social assistance vendors will become clear. So, it is not impossible that in the future there will be new suspects who will be appointed by the anti-corruption commission.

"Hopefully later we can find evidence of a criminal incident and of course if there is an incident the crime will rise again to become a case," he said.

In the COVID-19 social assistance bribery case in Jabodetabek, the KPK named a number of suspects including former Social Minister Juliari Peter Batubara.

Apart from Juliari, the KPK also named four other suspects, namely the Commitment Making Officer at the Ministry of Social Affairs (PPK) Matheus Joko Santoso and Adi Wahyono as the bribe recipients and Ardian I.M. and Harry Sidabuke as the bribes.

This case began when Juliari appointed two commitment-making officials (PPK) Matheus Joko Santoso and Adi to carry out this project by directly appointing partners.

The KPK suspects that it was agreed that there was a fee from the work package that partners had to pay to the Ministry of Social Affairs. As for the fee for each COVID-19 social assistance package that Matheus and Adi agreed to, it was IDR 10,000 from a value of IDR 300 thousand.