Opening A New Investigation, KPK Searches For State Loss In The Juliari Coal Social Assistance Bribery Case

Gedung KPK (Irfan Meidianto/VOI)

JAKARTA - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) admits it is seeking state losses from the COVID-19 social assistance bribery case that ensnared former Social Minister Juliari Peter Batubara. This search was carried out by conducting a new open investigation into the case.

"Open investigations generally look for incidents of alleged corruption in the application of Article 2 or Article 3 (the Anti-Corruption Law, ed) related to state losses," Acting KPK Spokesperson for Enforcement Affairs Ali Fikri told reporters, Saturday, August 7.

This effort was carried out to thoroughly investigate the COVID-19 social assistance case in the Jabodetabek area. This is because the previous investigation focused more on the application of the bribery article.

"Because all the results of the OTT must be about bribery or the like," explained Ali.

It is known that the case that ensnared Juliari was indeed initiated by an arrest operation (OTT) against two of his subordinates, namely Matheus Joko Santoso and Adi Wahyono. Both are suspected of receiving money from a number of vendors who received social assistance procurement projects.

Returning to Ali, he said that the effort to develop a social assistance bribery case in order to seek state losses was a step forward. The reason is that the KPK usually only deals with the bribery article.

"Previous case handling stopped at OTT, so the continuation will also focus on bribery," he said.

Even so, he warned that this investigation may not find results because it is constrained by many things. "For example, BPK or BPKP do not agree to calculate state losses," Ali explained.

"Or it could be that the team could not find elements against formal laws such as any laws or regulations that were violated or other legal technical obstacles such as differences in legal interpretations and others," he added.

Some time ago, the KPK called the trial of the social assistance bribery case at the Jakarta Corruption Court as an entry point to investigate the involvement of other parties. Moreover, from the trial a number of facts were revealed.

In this new investigation, investigators have examined Juliari Batubara on Friday, August 6 yesterday. At that time, the former PDI-P politician clarified a number of things for the development of the COVID-19 social assistance bribery case.

Previously reported, the KPK prosecutor demanded Juliari Peter Batubara to 11 years in prison in the alleged bribery case for the procurement of social assistance (bansos) COVID-19. In addition, he was also charged with a fine of Rp. 500 million, subsidiary to 2 years in prison.

In addition, Juliari was also required to pay compensation to the state amounting to Rp. 14.5 billion as an additional penalty. In fact, if they cannot pay, their assets will be auctioned to pay the replacement money.

If the proceeds from the auction of his assets are insufficient, he could be sentenced to an additional two years' imprisonment. Furthermore, the former PDI-P politician was also sentenced to an additional sentence of revocation of the right to be elected in public office for 4 years after the defendant finished serving his main sentence.