KPK Reveals Ministry Of Religion Employees Return 'Accelerated' Money To Khalid Basalamah For Fear

Khalid Basalamah is a witness to the corruption case in quotas and the implementation of Hajj in 2023-2024 at the Ministry of Religion (Kemenag). (Tsa Tsia-VOI)

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) revealed that an employee of the Ministry of Religion (Kemenag) returned the money for the acceleration of preachers as well as the owner of PT Zahra Oto Mandiri (Uhud Tour), Khalid Zeed Abdullah Basalamah or Khalid Basalamah.

Acting (Plt) Deputy for Enforcement and Execution of the KPK Asep Guntur initially explained Khalid intends to go to the Holy Land with his congregation in 2024 using a furode Hajj visa. Later, he changed this type of trip to a special pilgrimage because of the lure of an employee of the Ministry of Religion.

The employee, whose identity was not identified, required Khalid to pay the acceleration money so as not to queue to leave. The preacher agreed but the money was later returned.

The return, continued Asep, was carried out after the ministry employee was frightened after the Indonesian House of Representatives formed the Hajj Special Committee (Pansus).

"The special committee was made (by the DPR RI, ed) and for fear, because of the fear of this person, the money was returned which had already been handed over as acceleration money (special hajj, ed). It was handed back to Ustaz Khalid Basalamah," Asep told reporters at the Merah Putih building, Kuningan Persada, South Jakarta, quoted on Friday, September 19.

The money returned was then handed over to the KPK and has been confiscated. The forced effort is to complete evidence of alleged corruption in quotas and the implementation of Hajj in 2023-2024 at the Ministry of Religion.

"That is the confiscated investigator from Ustaz Khalid Basalamah as proof that indeed in the distribution of this quota there is a certain amount of money requested by the Ministry of Religion," he said.

Previously reported, the KPK has issued a general investigation warrant (sprindik) for alleged corruption in the addition of quotas and the implementation of Hajj in 2023-2024. This institution reasoned that the issuance was carried out so that they could make forced efforts such as searches, confiscations and witness examinations.

The general Sprindik uses Article 2 Paragraph 1 and/or Article 3 of Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption as amended by Law Number 20 of 2021 in conjunction with Article 55 paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code. This means that there are state losses that occur due to this corrupt practice.

State losses in the corruption case of quota and Hajj for the period 2023-2024 are said to have reached more than IDR 1 trillion. This amount is still increasing because it is only the initial calculation of the KPK which continues to coordinate with the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK).

This case began with the provision of 20,000 additional Hajj quotas from the Saudi Arabian government for Indonesia to reduce the queues of pilgrims. However, the distribution turned out to be problematic because it was divided equally, namely 50 percent for regular Hajj and 50 percent for special Hajj.

In fact, based on the law, the distribution should be 92 percent for regular Hajj and 8 percent for special Hajj.

Later, the distribution of problems was allegedly due to money from the Hajj and Umrah travel parties as well as the associations that oversee the Ministry of Religion. After getting the allotment, they sold the additional quota to prospective pilgrims.