NTB Prosecutor's Office Pockets 2 Potential Suspects For Corruption In Farmers' KUR Funds, Potential State Loss Of IDR 29.95 Billion

MATARAM - Head of the Prosecutor's Office of West Nusa Tenggara Barat NTB) Sungarpin mentioned the initials of two potential suspects in the alleged corruption case in distributing people's business credit (KUR) funds to farming communities in Central Lombok and East Lombok.

"Regarding the results of the investigation, we have identified several individuals who are potential suspects with the initials AM and IR," said Sungarpin as quoted by ANTARA, Friday, July 22.

However, the role of the suspect has not been clarified. The Attorney General's Office is still waiting for the results of an audit of state financial losses from the National Development and Finance Supervisory Agency (BPKP) representing NTB

"So, for state losses, we are still coordinating with BPKP," he said.

Although there are no results yet, Sungarpin provides an overview of the potential state losses that arise based on the prosecutor's independent calculation of Rp29.95 billion.

"The mode of potential loss arises from those who receive some, some are fictitious, some are received in the form of agricultural tools but are not in accordance with the function," he said.

In this series of investigations, the Attorney General's Office has examined the relevant parties, including the management of the Indonesian Farmers Association (HKTI) NTB. Finally present, the Chairman of the NTB HKTI who is now the Deputy Regent of East Lombok, Rumaksi.

HKTI in this program of distributing funds for farming communities has the task of recommending as well as verifying farmer groups that deserve assistance.

Apart from the HKTI, the witnesses who have appeared before the investigators are the banks that facilitated the distribution of aid in the form of funds. The bank is one of the state-owned enterprises (BUMN) with a branch office in Mataram.

Another witness was from CV ABB, a company that provided assistance to recipients from among farmer groups in managing the aid funds.

"For recipient farmers, 160 have been asked for information from 789 farmers," he said.

The KUR assistance program for farming communities in two districts on the island of Lombok will run in 2020. The assistance is distributed by the Ministry of Agriculture through one of the state-owned banks.

Farmers in the East Lombok region who received proposals to enter as recipients of KUR funds came from corn farmers. Each farmer gets a cash loan of IDR 15 million for land area per hectare.

The recipients in Central Lombok Regency are tobacco farmers. Each farmer gets loan funds in the amount of Rp. 30 million to Rp. 50 million.

With such data collection, the farmers who are registered in the proposed data for KUR recipients are required to undergo a loan administration process.

In the process, a third party, CV ABB and HKTI NTB were involved. They act as government partners in collecting data on farmers and managing KUR funds.

For the administrative purposes of corn farmers, they apply for KUR funds with BNI Mataram City Branch, while tobacco farmers go through BNI Praya Branch, Central Lombok Regency.

Regarding the existence of CV ABB as a third party, there is a strong suspicion that it received a direct appointment from the ministry. Likewise with the involvement of HKTI NTB.

Problems in this case also emerged when a number of farmers applied for loans to BRI. The application cannot be processed because there are KUR arrears that are currently running at BNI.

Their arrears also varied, ranging from Rp. 15 million to Rp. 45 million. Its value depends on the ownership of the land area.