Rotten Rice In Pasar Jaya Warehouse Becomes The Spotlight, DKI Provincial Government Claims It Can Still Be Auctioned

JAKARTA - The rice warehouse owned by Perumda Pasar Jaya in the Pulogadung area, East Jakarta, has been in the spotlight on social media. The condition of the rice in the warehouse belonging to the DKI regional-owned company (BUMD) looks rotten with a yellow color and moldy.

Responding to this, Acting Head of DKI Jakarta BUMD Development Agency, Fitria Rahadiani, confirmed this condition. Fitria said the rice was the remaining stock from the company's retail business.

"For the remaining stock of rice in Pulogadung, based on the results of coordination with Perumda Pasar Jaya, the remaining stock is the remaining stock from the company's retail business," said Fitria in a text message, Friday, January 13.

Fitria also claims that the remaining stock of rice in Pasar Jaya's warehouse will not be thrown away, but will be resold using an auction system. However, Fitria did not explain what the rotten rice being auctioned was used for.

"For the remaining stock, Perumda Pasar Jaya will carry out an auction in collaboration with the auction office at the end of January," she said.

It is known that the discovery of rotten rice was made viral on Twitter by social media activist Rudi Valinka with the account name @kurawa.

In addition to the rice findings, @kurawa also made accusations regarding the issue of corruption in the procurement of social assistance (bansos) for residents affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, at which time the Governor of DKI Jakarta was still Anies Baswedan.

In a series of tweets, Kurawa did not clearly disclose the alleged corruption and its nominal value.

He only disclosed data that was claimed to be the result of a forensic audit by the Ernst & Young public accounting firm (KAP) which stated that there was an unknown shrinkage of IDR 150 billion.

Related to this, Fitria was reluctant to respond. According to her, the issue of alleged social assistance corruption is not within her authority to investigate.

"Regarding the alleged corruption, it seems that it is not the authority of BP BUMD to justify it," said Fitria.