The Attorney General's Office Searches The Ministry Of Industry's Office Regarding Steel Import Cases

PHOTO VIA BETWEEN HO PUSPENKUM KEJAGUNG

JAKARTA - The Investigation Team of the Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes (Jampidsus) of the Attorney General's Office conducted a search at the Office of the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) related to cases of alleged corruption in the import of iron or steel in 2016-2021.

The Head of the Legal Information Center (Kapuspenkum) of the Attorney General's Office, Ketut Sumedana, said the search was carried out based on Court Decision Letter Number :9/Pen.Pid.Sus/TPK/III/2022/PN.JKT.Pst dated March 29, 2022 and Court Decision Letter Number: 12/Pen.Pid.Sus/TPK/III/2022/PN.JKT.Pst dated March 29, 2022.

"This search involved the Indonesian Attorney's Digital Forensic Team," said Ketut in a written statement quoted by Antara, Wednesday, March 30.

According to Ketut, today's searches were carried out in two locations, apart from the Ministry of Industry's office, as well as the PT Prasasti Metal Utama office, which is located at Jalan Buni, Mangga Besar, West Jakarta.

From the searches at the two locations, he continued, two digital evidences were found, namely an I-Mac A 1311 PC and a server dump file http://intranew.kemenperin.go.id which was saved to a flash drive.

In this case, the Attorney General's Office has raised the status of 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.

Previously, investigators also conducted searches and confiscations 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 related to 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.

A search of the fifth location at PT Perwira Adhitama Sejati which is 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 report documents, general import identification numbers documents and industrial business permits.

Ketut explained that from 2016 to 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, it turned out that the four SOEs had never collaborated 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 in conjunction with Article 3 of Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning Eradication of Corruption Crimes as amended by Law Number 20 of 2001 concerning Amendments to Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning Eradication of Corruption Crimes. .

"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.

Investigators have also examined a number of witnesses to strengthen evidence and to complete the filing in cases of alleged criminal acts of corruption in the import of iron or steel, alloy steel and their derivative products. On Wednesday (30/3), one witness was questioned with the initials HT as the President Director of PT Perwira Adhitama Sejati.