Investigating The Social Assistance Bribery Case That Caught Juliari Batubara, The KPK Examines The Evidence

JAKARTA - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) will continue to investigate all the evidence found in the alleged bribery case related to social assistance (bansos) in the Jabodetabek area that ensnared the inactive Minister of Social Affairs (Mensos) Juliari Peter Batubara. Moreover, the social assistance package given to the community is suspected to have been circumcised by the Ministry of Social Affairs.

"Everything we get from the evidence found, once again, our fellow investigators will conduct an in-depth study," KPK Deputy Chairman Nawawi Pomolango told reporters, Wednesday, December 16.

He said investigators would certainly act in accordance with existing evidence and could not just predict a case. All investigations of Rasuah cases, he said, must be in accordance with existing evidence.

Nawawi said that his party would openly accept if there were people who wanted to submit new evidence in this case. This was conveyed in response to the statement made by the Coordinator of the Anti-Corruption Society (MAKI) Boyamin Saiman who admitted that he would submit evidence related to this case.

It is known, MAKI had stated his suspicion that Juliari circumcised social assistance more than Rp10 thousand per food package. They even conducted a search and said that the basic food items distributed to the community were only Rp. 188 thousand.

Returning to Nawawi, he said the evidence submitted by MAKI could have been used by the KPK as additional evidence. Anti-corruption institutions, he continued, were ready to accommodate people who wanted to help investigate corruption cases.

"We will accept all public input and if this indeed meets the requirements as evidence," he said.

Previously, KPK Deputy Alexander Marwata agreed that his party had received information that the circumcised funds from each food package were Rp. 100,000 of the value of each Rp. 300 thousand.

"If the information is outside, that's from Rp. 300,000, at most Rp. 200 (thousand), he said, right? Said Alex at the KPK building, Jakarta, Monday, December 14.

Alex said that his party would explore this information. "In principle, of course, every information, even the smallest information, will be investigated by investigators," said Alex.

Alex said that so far investigators have investigated the value of Rp. 10,000 per package. However, Alex emphasized that his party would continue to develop and investigate the suspected bribery case for the social assistance procurement that ensnared Juliari and the four other suspects.

It is known, the KPK appointed Social Minister Juliari P. Batubara along with Adi Wahyono and Matheus Joko Santoso as the Ministry of Social Affairs Commitment Making Officer (PPK) and two private parties named Ardian IM and Harry Sidabuke as suspects in the case of suspected bribery for social assistance in the Jabodetabek area for handling Covid-19.

Juliari and two of his subordinates are suspected of receiving bribes worth around IDR 17 billion from Ardian and Harry as partners of the Ministry of Social Affairs in procuring COVID-19 social assistance packages for the Jabodetabek area in 2020.

This case stems from the provision of social assistance for handling COVID-19 in the form of food packages at the Ministry of Social Affairs in 2020 with a value of around Rp.5.9 trillion with a total of 272 procurement contracts and implemented over two periods.

Juliari as the Minister of Social Affairs appointed Matheus Joko Santoso and Adi Wahyono as Commitment Making Officers in the implementation of the project by directly appointing partners. It is suspected that it was agreed that there was a fee for each work package that the partners had to pay to the Ministry of Social Affairs through Matheus.