Witness Alleged Ethical Violations Firli Meet SYL Starting To Clarify KPK Supervisory Board

KPK chairman Firli Bahuri with former Minister of Agriculture SYL (ist)

JAKARTA - The Supervisory Board of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) continues to process alleged ethical violations of KPK Chairman Firli Bahuri regarding his meeting with former Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Syahrul Yasin Limpo. There are several witnesses whose identities are kept secret and have been clarified.

"Still in the process, several people have been (larified, ed). I definitely forgot the number because there were several cases that were in the process," said KPK Council Member Albertina Ho in a written statement to reporters quoted on Thursday, October 26.

Similarly, KPK Supervisory Board member Syamsuddin Haris also said the effort was already underway. This step was taken to obtain information regarding Firli's meeting with the alleged litigants.

However, Syamsuddin said that until now Syahrul had not been scheduled to be clarified.

"Not yet (asking for information from Syahrul, ed)," he said.

As previously reported, Firli and Syahrul allegedly met amid the investigation into alleged corruption at the Ministry of Agriculture after the photos of the two circulated. Later, the Legal Care Student Committee complained to the KPK Supervisory Board.

As for this case, Syahrul has been detained in connection with allegations of corruption at the Ministry of Agriculture (Kementan). He extorted his employees by requiring to pay deposits every month with the help of the Secretary General of the Ministry of Agriculture Kasdi Subagyono and the Director of Agricultural Equipment of the Ministry of Agriculture Muhammad Hatta.

The nominal set by Syahrul and must be deposited by echelon I-II employees in the range of 4,000-10,000 US dollars.

It is believed that the money collected does not only come from the realization of the Ministry of Agriculture's budget inflated or mark-ups but from vendors working on projects. The money is given in cash, transfers or goods.

The KPK then suspected that the money Syahrul received was used for various personal interests. Starting from Umrah with other Ministry of Agriculture employees, buying cars, repairing houses to flowing to the NasDem Party with a value of up to billions of rupiah.