Corruption of IDR 1.3 Billion Regional Election Fund, Members of the South Kalimantan Bawaslu Banjar Who Used to Pretend to Be Robbery Victims Tried

Sidang dengan terdakwa anggota Badan Pengawas Pemilu (Bawaslu) Kabupaten Banjar, Kalimantan Selatan berinisial SP disidang sebagai terdakwa di Pengadilan Tipikor Banjarmasin, Rabu (14/9/2022). (ANTARA/Firman)

BANJARMASIN - A member of the Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) of Banjar Regency, South Kalimantan, with the initials SP was tried as a defendant at the Banjarmasin Corruption Court. He was charged with misappropriating more than IDR 1.3 billion in funds for the 2020 Pilkada.

"Today we present one witness at the trial, namely the former Head of Treasury of the Banjar Regency Financial and Asset Management Agency (BPKAD), Abdullah Fathar", said Public Prosecutor (JPU) Setyo Wahyu in Banjarmasin as reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, September 14.

From the witness' explanation, it is known that the Banjar Bawaslu received a special grant from the Banjar Regency Government worth approximately IDR 16 billion for the 2020 Banjar Pilkada.

The funds budgeted by the Regency Government come from the State Budget (APBN) through the General Allocation Fund (DAU) for the Banjar Regency Bawaslu which is a special grant fund.

Abdullah in front of Chief Justice Jamser Simanjuntak together with two members of the Assembly Ahmad Gawi and Arief Winarno said that the budget amount was prepared and submitted by the Banjar Bawaslu itself to the Regency Government through the Banjar Regency National and Political Unity Agency.

After going through the evaluation processes, the proposal was approved and the disbursement was carried out in stages in two disbursements.

The first is IDR 6 billion and the rest is in the second disbursement. After the funds are granted, all fund management is fully under the authority of Banjar Bawaslu.

Based on the testimony of the witness, the defendant who was present virtually from the Martapura Women's Prison did not state a rebuttal or rebuttal.

In the prosecutor's indictment, defendant SP as the Expenditure Treasurer of the Banjar Bawaslu had misappropriated funds worth IDR 1.3 billion, more than the Banjar Bawaslu budget for the organizers of the 2020 Banjar Regional Election, which totaled IDR 16 billion.

The defendant was even known to have pretended that he was a victim of a robbery so that more than IDR 1.3 billion of funds was lost. However, the Banjar Police investigator at that time did not immediately believe it because there were so many irregularities in his confession.

During the investigation, SP was finally named a suspect for allegedly misappropriating the funds.

The defendant was charged with Article 2 Paragraph (1) subsidiary Article 3 in conjunction with Article 18 of the Law (UU) on the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption