The Prosecutor's Office Spilled The West Sumatra Grand Mosque Corruption Case To The Court

Head of the Intelligence Section of the Padang Attorney General's Office, Afliandi. ANTARA/FathulAbdi

PADANG - The Padang District Attorney, West Sumatra, has transferred the alleged corruption case of the construction project for the construction of the strategic area of the West Sumatra Grand Mosque to the Class IA Padang District Court. "Today we handed over the case files to the court because the public prosecutor's team has completed the indictment," said Padang District Attorney's Intelligence Section Head Afliandi to reporters in Padang, Antara, Friday, September 16. He said that after the case was transferred, his party would just have to wait for the trial schedule from the court. According to Andi, the two suspects in the alleged corruption case of the West Sumatra Mosque project, namely MS and E, were processed in two separate files. To hear this case, the prosecutor's office has appointed 16 prosecutors as a team of prosecutors who are a combination of the West Sumatra High Prosecutor's Office and the Padang District Attorney's Office. "The public prosecutor's team has prepared the indictment carefully and carefully for the sake of proving in court later, basically we are ready," said Andi. The suspects in this case have a background as project implementers for MS and E as Commitment Making Officers (PPK). According to the Head of the Special Criminal Section of the Padang Attorney General's Office, Therry Gutama, the two suspects were charged with violating Article 2 and Article 3 in conjunction with Article 18 of Law 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption with a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and a maximum fine of Rp. 1 billion. The suspects are now being held in two separate places, namely MS at the Padang Correctional Institution (Lapas) and E at the Padang State Detention Center. They are also known to be serving sentences in other corruption cases. The case is an alleged corruption in the construction work for the construction of the strategic area of the West Sumatra Grand Mosque with a budget ceiling of IDR 31 billion sourced from the 2017 Regional Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN). The scope of construction work includes a number of physical works such as VIP parking, outdoor prayer areas, conservation and recreation areas, main plasma, car parking areas, motorbike parking, service areas, sidewalks and roads, drainage, and others. The project is suspected to be problematic because the work in the field is not in accordance with the contract. The results of the audit stated that the work was only around 88.7 percent, while the budget that had been disbursed reached 100 percent. The West Sumatra High Prosecutor's Office investigative team also found a number of modes, namely the transfer of project implementing companies against the law, materials that did not meet specifications, and others. As a result, the state suffered financial losses of more than Rp. 3 billion. In its development, the investigation into the alleged corruption case was carried out by the West Sumatra Prosecutor's Office, then raised to the prosecution stage last Monday.