Corn Seed Corruption In NTB, Prosecutor's Office Arrests Director Of PT Sinta Agro Mandiri

Director of PT Sinta Agro Mandiri (SAM) with the initials AP/ Antara

JAKARTA - The Special Criminal Investigator of the West Nusa Tenggara High Prosecutor's Office has detained the Director of PT Sinta Agro Mandiri (SAM) with the initials AP. He is a suspect in a corruption case in the procurement of corn seeds for the 2017 fiscal year.

The Assistant for Special Crimes (Aspidsus) of the NTB Prosecutor's Office, Gunawan Wibisana, said that investigators had officially started making arrests after the suspect AP underwent his initial examination.

"After the results of the rapid antigen test were found to be negative for the suspected COVID-19, investigators then began to conduct a preliminary examination of the suspect and ended with making arrests," Gunawan said as quoted by Antara, Monday, June 7.

The suspect AP, he explained, is undergoing detention at the Mataram Police Rutan. As a detainee entrusted by the prosecutor to the police, suspect AP was placed separately from three other suspects who had already languished in the NTB Police Rutan.

Regarding the reason for his detention separately, Gunawan said that it was part of the technical investigation.

"This (different location of detention) is actually a technical investigation. But what is clear is that the detention of the suspect AP is the same as the others, to facilitate investigators in handling cases," he said.

The suspect, AP, who was the director of the company providing corn seeds, had previously been exposed to COVID-19.

The statement stating that he was exposed to COVID-19 lasted for a long period of time, starting from the first summons as a suspect in early April.

"Yes, so from the six times we have been summoned to undergo an examination, only now can we be examined as a suspect," he said.

With the detention of the suspect AP, he continued, investigators are now focusing on immediately completing the handling of the case.

"So the next plan, we will still carry out further examination of the suspects, because not all have been completed," he said.

They also said that Gunawan would be questioned by investigators in rotation with the status of a crown witness for each suspect.

In an effort to settle the handling of the case, the calculation of state losses by the audit team from the NTB BPKP is also included in the focus of handling.

"Yes, for BPKP, the progress is nearing the completion stage. Hopefully in the near future we will get the results (state loss audit), so that we can immediately transfer the file to the court," he said.

The project for the procurement of corn seeds for the 2017 budget year comes from the national-scale corn cultivation program of the Directorate General of Food Crops, Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Indonesia.

At that time, the province of NTB received a planting quota of 400,805 hectares with a harvest target of 380,765 hectares.

The procurement is spread across all regencies/cities in NTB with a budget of IDR 48.256 billion of the total national scale procurement of IDR 170 billion.

The distribution is carried out in two stages. The first phase with a budget of IDR 17,256 billion was carried out by the project winner from PT SAM and the second phase worth IDR 31 billion by PT Wahana Banu Sejahtera (WBS).

During the investigation, investigators identified four suspects. Apart from AP, the other three suspects are the former Head of the Department of Agriculture and Plantation (Distanbun) of NTB HF, who acts as the project's budget user authority (KPA).

Then IWW, the official commitment maker (PPK) for the 2017 corn project and the director of seed supply from PT WBS with the initials LIH.

As suspects, they are suspected of Article 2 Paragraph 1 Juncto Article 18 of the Law on the Eradication of Corruption Crimes in conjunction with Article 55 Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code and or Article 3 in conjunction with Article 18 of the Law on the Eradication of Corruption Crimes in conjunction with Article 55 Paragraph 1 1 KUHP.