Investigators from the South Sulawesi Regional Police’s Criminal Investigation Department uncovered 31 cases of criminal acts of corruption with 21 people named as suspects. South Sulawesi Regional Police Chief, Inspector General Yudhiawan, said that dozens of criminal acts of corruption were combined into three files. These include criminal acts of corruption related to physical work, banking and abuse of authority.
“There are 3 LPs (police reports) combined into one. There are 21 suspects, we are also combining these 3 LPs,” he said, in Makassar City, South Sulawesi, Tuesday (12/11).
Yudhiawan explained that in the physical work corruption case, the South Sulawesi Regional Police’s Ditreskrimsus investigated several cases, namely the construction of the 18 kilometer Sabang-Tallang road in North Luwu Regency by the PUTR Service of South Sulawesi Province in 2020. Furthermore, the construction of the Labukang Market by the Parepare City Trade Service in the 2019 fiscal year.
“The modus operandi is borrowing and using the company. PPK and PPTK do not control contracts, change specifications in the field, do not carry out work according to the contract or do not comply with work specifications and the use of managerial personnel does not comply with the contract,” he explained.
Meanwhile, the respective cases of alleged banking corruption include the granting of Bank BPD Sulselbar construction credit facilities to PT Aiwondeni Permai in 2020 and the granting of Bank BPD Sulselbar Sengkang Branch construction credit facilities to PT Delima Agung Utama in 2021.
Furthermore, the provision of construction working capital credit facilities at Bank Sulselbar Takalar Branch to PT Letebbe Putra Group in 2021-2022 and the provision of People’s Enterprise credit facilities (KUR) at Bank BRI Unit Mappasaile Pangkep Branch in 2019-2021.
Then, providing Bank BRI KUR facilities for the Takkallala Unit in Soppeng Regency in 2022-2023, abuse of authority to duplicate credit cards belonging to Bank BRI Kahu customers in Bone Regency in 2023, and providing Bank Mandiri SME Makassar Kartini credit facilities to the PT Eastern Pearl Flour Mils (EPFM) Cooperative 2018-2019.
In their actions, the suspects carried out an analysis of working capital credit that did not comply with the credit granting mechanism outside the branch’s working area and payment terms that were not debited.
“Apart from that, the credit facility is beyond its intended use and uses fictitious top-up documents and other required documentation for KUR disbursement requirements,” explained Yudhi.
Next, cases of alleged abuse of authority or position, namely levies of PPh 21 on State Civil Apparatus (ASN) recipients of payments for BPJS Health claims services at Lanto Daeng Pasewang Regional Hospital, Jeneponto Regency in 2017-2018 and procurement of goods handed over to the community in response to emergency situations. Covid-19 at the Makassar City Social Service in 2020 and management of agricultural tools and machinery at the UPTD for Agricultural Agribusiness Management in Maros Regency in 2020 2023.
In the case of Lanto Daeng Pasewang Regional Hospital, officials deducted the receipts from claims services to health workers but did not deposit PPh 21, but instead the funds were deposited in personal accounts by falsifying BPJS claim deposit slips as if they had been paid.
Then, in the Covid-19 case, it was suspected that he had inflated the prices of Covid-19 relief goods in Makassar, and for machine tools in Maros, his method was selling and renting state-owned goods and not depositing the funds into the state treasury.
“So far, case handling for stage one has included 5 police reports (LP), preparations for sending files to the prosecutor’s office 7 LP, while calculating state losses (PKN) 16 LP and the fingerprinting process is 5 LP,” he said.
Yudhiawan said that in this criminal case, 21 people were named as suspects with their respective initials, AA, JP, MS, OA, EJ, AR, DM, BJ, MT, ZS, AM, KH, ISB, AMS, AF, RL , ED, OO, FA, NR and NS. Meanwhile, 453 witnesses were examined and 12 experts were examined.
In this case, the South Sulawesi Regional Police confiscated 350 documents as evidence, such as BPKB, land certificates and other important documents. The police also confiscated 14 four-wheeled vehicles, 10 10-wheeled vehicles or dump trucks, eight Forklip trucks, one cell phone, three laptops and IDR 2.29 billion in cash.
“In this case, the rescue of state funds (money and goods) was worth more than IDR 8.7 billion, the results of calculating state losses (PKN) were more than IDR 25.4 billion, potential state losses (AI) were more than IDR 59.4 billion, so the total was IDR 84 .8 billion more,” he said.
As a result of their actions, the suspects were threatened with Article 2 paragraph 1 subsidiary Article 3 of Law number 31 of 1999 as amended by Law number 20 of 2001 concerning the Eradication of Corruption Crimes in conjunction with Article 55 paragraph (1) first of the Criminal Code.
“The threat of imprisonment is a minimum of 1 year and a maximum of 20 years or life in emergency conditions, as well as a minimum fine of IDR 200 million and a maximum of IDR 1 billion,” he added. (MGN/I-2)
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What methods did the Criminal Investigation Department use to compile and analyze the reports that led to uncovering the 31 corruption cases in South Sulawesi?
**Interview with Inspector General Yudhiawan: Uncovering Corruption in South Sulawesi**
**Editor**: Good day, Inspector General Yudhiawan. Thank you for joining us today. You recently announced the uncovering of 31 corruption cases in South Sulawesi, totaling over Rp. 84.8 billion. Can you tell us more about how these cases were identified?
**Inspector General Yudhiawan**: Thank you for having me. Our Criminal Investigation Department has been diligently investigating multiple reports that led to our findings. We combined three major police reports into a single case file, identifying 21 suspects involved in various acts of corruption related to physical work, banking malpractices, and abuse of authority.
**Editor**: That’s quite significant. Could you provide more detail on some of the corruption cases related to physical projects?
**Inspector General Yudhiawan**: Of course. One notable case involves the construction of the 18-kilometer Sabang-Tallang road in the North Luwu Regency, which was managed by the South Sulawesi Province’s Public Works Service in 2020. Additionally, we are looking into the construction of Labukang Market initiated by the Parepare City Trade Service during the 2019 fiscal year. In these cases, we found serious discrepancies in contract management and work specifications.
**Editor**: It’s alarming to hear about these practices. What specifically were the issues you encountered?
**Inspector General Yudhiawan**: The issues primarily revolved around the misuse of company resources, where the PPK (Commitment Making Officer) and PPTK (Technical Managing Officer) failed to monitor contracts properly. This included deviating from work specifications and often not performing tasks as outlined in the contracts.
**Editor**: We’ve also seen allegations concerning banking corruption. Can you elaborate on those?
**Inspector General Yudhiawan**: Certainly. We detected irregularities in several credit facilities granted by Bank BPD Sulselbar, specifically to construction firms such as PT Aiwondeni Permai and PT Delima Agung Utama. The suspects did not adhere to proper credit granting mechanisms, issued fictitious documents, and mismanaged funds that were supposed to be allocated for specific purposes.
**Editor**: That’s quite concerning. Lastly, what about the abuse of authority cases you mentioned?
**Inspector General Yudhiawan**: In these cases, we uncovered officials who took improper deductions from payments meant for health workers at a local hospital and inflated prices for Covid-19 relief goods distributed by the Makassar City Social Service. These actions represent a blatant disregard for ethical governance and trust in public service.
**Editor**: Thank you for sharing these insights, Inspector General Yudhiawan. It’s clear that a lot of work lies ahead for the police in addressing these corruption issues. What’s the next step for your team?
**Inspector General Yudhiawan**: Our immediate focus is to finalize the evidence and proceed with the legal process by submitting case files for prosecution. We are committed to ensuring transparency and integrity in public service, and we will continue to expose and address corruption wherever it occurs.
**Editor**: We appreciate your time today and the important work your team is doing. Thank you, Inspector General Yudhiawan.
**Inspector General Yudhiawan**: Thank you for having me. It’s a pleasure to discuss these vital issues.