Allegations Of Corruption In Procurement Of Solar Cell Street Lights That Dragged Ex Head Of PMD Sitaro, Novryus To Trial At Manado District Court

Former Head of PMD Sitaro was taken out of the Sitaro Kejari Office to the Sibar Sector Police detention room, Sitaro, North Sulawesi (Via ANTARA)

MANADO - The District Attorney for the Siau Islands, Tagulandang Biaro (Sitaro) stated that a criminal case of corruption in village funds for the procurement of solar cell technology for the 2020 Fiscal Year will be tried at the Manado Corruption Court, North Sulawesi.

The head of the Sitaro Islands District Prosecutor's Office, Aditia Aelman Ali, stated that the submission of the suspect and evidence in the corruption case was the result of the work carried out by the prosecutor's investigation team.

The Special Crimes Section (Pidsus) of the Sitaro Islands Kejari, Wednesday, May 11, handed over the suspects and evidence against two suspects, namely NT alias Novryus and AM alias Alex.

"Then we will complete the corruption case file and immediately transfer the case to the court for trial," said Aditia in Sitaro, Antara, Thursday, May 12.

According to him, the investigation team led by the Head of the Section (Kasi) for Special Crimes, Orchido Bellamarga, SH and consisted of five people, as stated in Sprint Number: Print-05/P.1.20.4/Fd.1/12/2021 and Print-06/P.1.20.4/Fd.1/12/2021 dated December 10, 2021, it was found that state financial losses reached hundreds of millions.

"Regarding this solar cell, we have asked for information from electrical experts, especially from Samratulangi University and the calculations were compared with the inspectorate auditors. It turned out that there was a state financial loss," he said.

Prior to the handover of the suspect and evidence, the suspect's medical examination was carried out at the Sawang Field General Hospital (RSUD) with the results that both were declared healthy.

"The two suspects have been detained for 20 days, the detentions have been deposited at the West Siau Police. In the near future, approximately 3 days, the case will be transferred to the Manado Corruption Court. The Prosecutor's Office has confiscated or received a refund from the parties, approximately Rp. 120 million as return of state losses," he explained.

The chronology of this corruption case took place in 2020. There are nine villages in the Sitaro Islands Regency making a program for the procurement of solar cell street lights, namely Apelawo Village, Dompase Village, Batusenggo Village, Talawid Village, Kapeta Village, Makoa Village, Lai Village, Mahangiang Village, and Laingpateh Village, with a total cost of IDR 1,083,500,000.

It is suspected that in the procurement, suspect NT alias Novryus, who was then Head of the Community and Village Empowerment Service (PMD) Sitaro, directed suspect AM alias Alex as the owner of CV Jasa Mandiri, to become a solar cell provider. However, the implementation did not comply with the provisions for the procurement of goods/services in the village because suspect AM promised money to suspect NT.

As a result of the suspect's actions - based on the report on the results of the audit of state financial calculations for the work on the procurement of solar cell street lights for the 2020 academic year Number: 009/LHP-AI/INSPEK/XII/2021 dated December 9, 2021 - the total state loss was Rp. 692,902,000.

The actions of the suspects violated Article 2 paragraph (1) in conjunction with Article 18 of Law Number 20 of 2001 concerning the Eradication of Corruption Crimes jo. Article 55 paragraph (1) of the Criminal Code, Article 3.