3 Suspects In The Case Of Alleged Corruption Of The East Flores COVID-19 Fund Immediately Seat In A Prison Chair

Illustration of trial. (Between)

Three suspects in the alleged corruption case in the management of the COVID-19 handling budget in East Flores will immediately undergo trial. The case files and evidence of the suspects have been transferred by the District Attorney's Office (Kejari) investigators to the East Flores Public Prosecutor's Office (JPU).

Head of the Legal Information and Public Relations Section of the East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) High Prosecutor's Office, Abdul Hakim, said the trial would be held at the Kupang Corruption Crime District Court.

"With the submission of files and evidence, it will be immediately transferred to the court for trial," he said when contacted, Tuesday, November 15.

According to Abdul, after the surrender of the suspect and evidence, the three suspects were detained by the East Flores Public Prosecutor's Office for 20 days.

"After the submission of the three suspects, the public prosecutor will perfect the existing indictment, and then transfer it to the Corruption Court at the Kupang District Court," said Abdul.

He explained that the East Flores Kejari investigators had issued an investigation warrant for the crime of money laundering after the surrender of the suspect and evidence was carried out.

The suspects in the corruption case in the management of the budget for the acceleration of handling COVID-19 for the 2022 fiscal year are the Finance Treasurer of the East Flores BPBD Office, Petronela Letek Toda; Head of BPBD East Flores, Alfons Hada Beta; and Regional Secretary of East Flores, Paulus Igo Gerode.

Based on the Antara report, this corruption case stems from the policy of refocusing the activities and reallocation of the East Flores budget during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In this policy, the East Flores BPBD Office received an unexpected budget allocation of IDR 6.5 billion for disaster emergency handling.

However, the accountability report for the use of funds is not supported by evidence in accordance with applicable regulations. After being calculated, state losses due to the alleged corruption case in East Flores reached Rp1.5 billion.