AGO Investigate Mode Of Alleged Corruption Of Imports Of Iron And Steel

DOK VOI

JAKARTA - The Attorney General's Office is investigating cases of alleged criminal acts of corruption in the import of iron or steel, alloy steel and their derivative products in 2016-2021 involving six importing companies.

Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes (Jampidsus) the Attorney General's Office, Febrie Adriansyah, said that his party was investigating the alleged mode of corruption, including whether the specifications of imported iron or steel were in accordance with the obligations stated in the documents used by the importer.

“The first thing to deepen is the mode, is it only with the explanation letter (Sujel), or is there something else. Some of them will be seen later, then what are their obligations (importers) according to the type entered, so there are several that will be seen," said Febrie, quoted by Antara, Wednesday, March 23.

According to Febrie, his party collects data to track how much iron or steel imports are in Indonesia, and to see if the documents and import processes carried out are correct.

"One of the suspected modes is the modus operandi. Of course, not only the modus operandi, but we are also looking at whether these obligations are in accordance with the correct specifications in the documents," he said.

In this case, the Attorney General's Office has raised the status of the case handling from the investigation to the general investigation stage. The increase in status is based on the Investigation Order of the Director of Investigation of the Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes Number: B-15/F.2/Fd.2/03/2022 dated March 16, 2022.

However, the Attorney General's Office only announced an official increase in the status of handling steel import corruption cases on Tuesday (22/3).

"The handling of cases of imports of iron or steel has reached the investigation stage on March 16, 2022, but because we have secured the next legal process in the form of searches and seizures, we have just announced it," said the Head of the Legal Information Center (Kapuspenkum) at the Attorney General's Office, Ketut Sumedana.

The search and seizure were carried out on Tuesday (22/3) at five locations in Jakarta, including the Data Center at the Data Center and Information System (PDSI), the Secretariat General of the Indonesian Ministry of Trade. At that location, electronic evidence was confiscated, one flashdisk unit containing 27 files of recaps of explanation letters from six importers and a recap of explanation letters in the field of various industrial mining.

The second location at the Directorate of Imports of the Ministry of Trade was confiscated electronic evidence in the form of PCs, laptops and mobile phones. Then the document of explanation letter and Import Approval (PI) related to the import of steel and iron, as well as Rp63,350,000 in cash.

Subsequent searches at the PT Intisource Bajaksakti office, having its address at Pluit Village, Penjaringan, North Jakarta, confiscated a BC 2.0 document regarding the Notification of Import of Steel Goods (PIB).

The next location at PT Bangun Era Sejahtera, having its address in Tangerang City, Banten, was confiscated in the form of BC 2.0 documents related to steel PIB, sales invoice documents for 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 including documents registering PT Bangun Era Sejahtera's accounts.

The fifth location at PT Perwira Adhitama Sejati, located in Pluit, North Jakarta, was confiscated in the form of electronic evidence of two external hard drives, BC 2.0 documents related to steel PIB, financial statement documents, general import identification numbers documents and industrial business license documents.

Ketut explained that related to this case, from 2016-2021 there were six companies importing iron or steel, guide steel and their derivative products using Sujel or import agreements without PI and LS issued by the Directorate of Imports of the Ministry of Trade.

The Sujel was issued on the basis of an importer's request with the reason that it was used in the context of procuring construction materials for road and bridge construction projects on the pretext of having a cooperation agreement with four SOEs.

The four SOEs are PT Waskita Karya, PT Wijaya Karya, PT Nindya Karya and PT Pertamina Gas (Pertagas).

"After clarification, the four SOEs apparently never cooperated in procuring project materials in the form of iron or steel with the six importers," said Ketut.

It is suspected that the six importers also imported alloy steel using Sujel I on May 26, 2020 with the excuse that it was for the purposes of road and bridge construction projects, whereas in reality the road and bridge projects in question had been completed in 2018.

"So he (the importer) admits this even though the project itself has been completed," he said.

According to Ketut, an indication of irregularities in the use of Sujel related to the exemption of permits for the importation of iron or steel, alloy steel and their derivative products carried out by the six importers.

The six importers, namely PT Jaya Arya Kemuning; PT Duta Sari Sejahtera; PT Intisource Bajasakti; PT Prasasti Metal Utama; PT Bangun Era Sejahtera; and PT Perwira Adhitama.

Based on this, the importer is indicated to have committed a criminal act of corruption as regulated in Article 2 juhcto Article 3 of Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption as amended by Law Number 20 of 2001 concerning Amendments to Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption. .

"So the six companies did not import according to their designation and it turned out that they had never entered into a cooperation agreement with the four SOEs," said Ketut.