Regarding The Bribery Of New Student Admissions At Unila, KPK: Smears And Becomes The Beginning Of The Next Manipulation

Illustration of the KPK's Red and White Building in Jakarta. (VOI dock)

JAKARTA - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said that the alleged bribery of accepting new students that ensnared the Chancellor of the University of Lampung (Unila) Karomani to the Chair of the Unila Senate Muhammad Basri tarnished the world of education.

Deputy Chairperson of the KPK, Nurul Ghufron, said that campuses should have integrity to produce the nation's future generations. Not only that, this mode of bribery is also unfortunate because the campus which is the producer of the superior generation should have a moral responsibility.

"The bribery mode of accepting new students has tarnished the world of education who has a high moral responsibility to produce future generations of the nation with quality and integrity," he said as shown on the Indonesian KPK YouTube, Monday, August 22.

Ghufron reminded that this kind of manipulation should not be repeated at Unila or other campuses in the country. The reason is that once this kind of bribery occurs, it is not impossible that it will happen again in the future.

"Manipulation carried out at the initial acceptance stage is the initial door for the next manipulation at the learning stage until graduation later," he said.

The KPK confirmed that it would continue to investigate allegations of bribery or other corruption in the education sector. It's just that, Ghufron said, the steps that will be taken by his institution can only be successful if all parties follow it without exception.

"We have handled various types of cases in the education sector through enforcement efforts. Through prevention strategies, we have encouraged improvements to the system and governance of anti-corruption education for students," he said.

"But once again, preventing corruption requires real commitment and action from all parties, including the state administrators themselves," continued Ghufron.

Previously, the KPK named four suspects for alleged bribery of accepting new students at the University of Lampung in 2022. The determination of these suspects began with arresting operations carried out in Lampung, Bandung and Bali.

The suspects involved in this case are the Chancellor of the University of Lampung 2020-2024 Karomani; Vice Chancellor I for Academic Affairs, University of Lampung Heryandi; Chairman of the Senate of the University of Lampung Muhammad Basri; and private Andi Desfiandi.

In this case, Karomani is suspected of fixing the price of seats for prospective new students on his campus at a price ranging from Rp. 100 million to Rp. 350 million when carrying out the Independent Selection for Entrance to the University of Lampung (Simanila). This request was made after Heryandi and Muhammad Basri personally selected the student's parents' ability to pay.

As for one of the families of the prospective Simanila participants, Andi then took the initiative to pay after his family was accepted as a student because of Karomani's assistance. He then handed over Rp150 million in cash in Lampung which was taken by a lecturer, namely Mualimin.

From his actions, Karomani allegedly managed to collect Rp603 million from Mualimin which was then used for personal purposes amounting to Rp575 million.

Meanwhile, from Muhammad Basri and Budi Sutomo who are Head of the Planning and Public Relations Bureau at the University of Lampung, it is suspected that the total money received by Karomani reached Rp. 4.4 billion. This money is then transferred to savings deposits, gold bars, and some are still in cash.