The Prosecutor's Office Searches The West Sumatra Governor's Office Regarding The Alleged Case Of Disdik Corruption

A team from the West Sumatra High Prosecutor's Office conducted a search at the governor's office, Monday (25/3). ANTARA/FathulAbdi

The investigating team of the West Sumatra High Prosecutor's Office visited the local governor's office to conduct a search and look for evidence of the alleged corruption case being handled.

Assistant for Special Crimes at the West Sumatra Prosecutor's Office, Haliman, said the search was focused on the Office of the West Sumatra Provincial Secretariat for Goods and Services Procurement Bureau in Padang.

"The team examined a number of rooms in the Goods and Services Procurement Bureau to collect evidence on the alleged corruption case that we are investigating," said Hadiman as quoted by ANTARA, Monday, March 25.

During the search, the investigative team searched for an auction letter for the procurement of goods and services carried out by the Work Group V of the West Sumatra Provincial Secretariat for Goods and Services Procurement Bureau in 2021.

The Prosecutor's Office is handling a case of alleged corruption at the West Sumatra Education Office in the project to procure practical equipment for vocational high school (SMK) students in 2021 with a budget ceiling of around Rp. 18 billion.

Haliman explained that the search was carried out because witnesses from the Goods and Services Procurement Bureau when examined previously admitted that they did not know the whereabouts of a number of documents. Some of them are documents for evaluating evidence of qualifications and evaluation results related to witnesses in the Work Group V and VII.

The search was a follow-up search carried out by West Sumatra Prosecutor's Office investigators because previously on Tuesday (19/3) they also searched the Education Office.

"When all the evidence we need has been collected, as soon as possible we will determine the suspect in this case," explained Haliman.

He emphasized that the West Sumatra Prosecutor's Office would ensnare all people who were involved indiscriminately so that they would be prosecuted.

In the procurement project at the West Sumatra Education Office which was suspected of having problems, there were four activities, namely the procurement of main practice equipment for students in the maritime sector (nautical fishing vessels and agribusiness for freshwater fisheries), the procurement of main practice equipment for students of food and horticultural vocational schools, the management of agricultural and poultry products.

The third is the procurement of equipment for the main practice of automotive sector vocational school students (motomotive light vehicles technique, welding technique, and electrical power installation technique), and the last is the procurement of main practice goods for students of SMK in the tourism sector (hotel, beauty, skin and hair, boga system and fashion).

The investigation of the case began when the prosecutor's office received a report from the public about the alleged price inflation in the procurement of goods and services project.

"Reports from the public then we followed up by conducting an investigation until the case was finally raised to the investigation stage," he explained.

In the ongoing investigation process, the prosecutor's investigators have examined dozens of witnesses and asked for an audit of state financial losses.