Former Takalar BPKD Official Becomes Suspect Of Marine Sand Mining Corruption

Head of the Information and Legal Section of the South Sulawesi Prosecutor's Office Soetarmi (left) together with the police led the suspect FS (medium) to be taken to prison/ANTARA/HO-Documentation of the South Sulawesi Prosecutor's Office

MAKASSAR - Investigators from the South Sulawesi High Prosecutor's Office (Kejati) have again named a suspect with the initials FS, the former daily executive of the Head of the Takalar Regency Regional Financial Management Agency (BPKD), for the corruption case in the selling price of marine sand mines for the 2020 fiscal year.

"Based on the warrant, the suspect was immediately detained for 20 days from 27 July to 15 August 2023 at the Makassar Class 1 Correctional Institution or Prison," said Head of the Information and Legal Section of the South Sulawesi Attorney General's Office in Makassar as reported by ANTARA, Thursday, July 27.

The determination of the suspect after investigators found sufficient evidence and the results of the examination from the beginning became a witness and then named a suspect in a case of alleged corruption, irregularities in determining the market value or the price of marine sand at sea sand mining from the provisions.

For the case that ensnared and made FS a suspect because he was the person who participated or together with the defendants with the initials GM, HB and AN who had been named as suspects first.

This corruption case began with a letter requesting tax relief to the Takalar Regent on October 2, 2020, submitted by suspect AN as the President Director of PT Banteng Laut Indonesia as if asking for a decrease or relief from the value of sea sand tax.

However, the contents of the letter turned out to ask for a decrease in the value of the marine sand market by Rp7,500 per cubic meter.

This value contradicts the Decree of the Governor of South Sulawesi number: 1417/VI/year 2020 as of June 5, 2020 concerning the Implementation of the Price of Non-Meal Metal and Rock Mineral Patokan in the Province of South Sulawesi, and Article 5 paragraph (3), Takalar Regent Regulation number 9 of 2017 as of May 16, 2017 concerning the Implementation of Non-Meal Metal and Rock Mineral Taxes.

As well as article 6 paragraph (3) of Takalar Regent Regulation number 27 of 2020 as of September 25, 2020 concerning Procedures for Management of Non-Mealth and Rock Mineral Taxes, which in these regulations, market value or seabed price has been set at IDR 10,000 per cubic meter. The sea sand is sold for Makassar New Port reclamation purposes in Makassar City.

From the request of suspect AN, the discussion process was then carried out by the suspect FS and the defendant HB, then the SKPD was issued by the defendant GM to PT Banteng Laut Indonesia with a sea sand market value of Rp. 7,500 per cubic meter.

From the irregularities that occur in determining the market value or the basic price of sea sand, the Takalar Regency Government suffered losses with a total value of more than Rp. 7.06 billion.

This is in accordance with the Report on the Results of Examination/Audit Calculation of State Financial Losses on irregularities in determining the selling price of sea sand to the Takalar Regency BPKD.