KPK Ensures Social Assistance Corruption Development At The Ministry Of Social Affairs Will Be Completed Before The End Of This Year

Deputy Chairperson of the KPK Alexander Marwata/PHOTO: Wardhany Tsa Tsia-VOI

JAKARTA - Deputy Chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Alexander Marwata confirmed that the investigation into the alleged corruption case in the procurement of COVID-19 social assistance (bansos) at the Ministry of Social Affairs was still ongoing.

The KPK targets that this investigation should be completed before the end of the year. It will be decided later whether the allegations are followed up or not.

"This is also being investigated by friends at the investigators. Hopefully, before the end of this year there will be clarity regarding the social assistance case," Alexander told reporters at the KPK Merah Putih building, Kuningan Persada, South Jakarta, Thursday, August 18. .

Alexander said his party was still looking for supporting evidence to apply Article 2 and Article 3 of the Anti-Corruption Law. However, this step is certainly not easy so it takes time.

In addition to waiting for the results of the calculation of state losses from the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP), the KPK is also continuing to investigate the companies involved in the social assistance procurement process.

"This social assistance involves millions of packages and dozens of companies. So it's not an easy, simple process, and will definitely take time," said Alexander.

As a reminder, this social assistance bribery case began after the KPK carried out a hand arrest operation (OTT) at the Ministry of Social Affairs (Kemensos). Furthermore, from the operation, former Minister of Social Affairs Juliari Batubara was named a suspect.

In this case, Juliari was sentenced to 12 years in prison for being proven to have accepted bribes related to the procurement of COVID-19 social assistance in the Jabodetabek area in 2020 of up to Rp. 14.7 billion.

Apart from Juliari, two of Juliari's former subordinates, namely the former Commitment Making Officer (PPK) of the Ministry of Social Affairs, namely Adi Wahyono and Matheus Joko Santoso are also involved in this case. Adi was found guilty and sentenced to 7 years in prison while Matheus was sentenced to 9 years in prison.