AGO Reveals Reason for Not Seizing All BGN Electric Motorcycles from Dadan's Era

The Indonesian Attorney General’s Office has stated it will not seize the electric motorcycles involved in a procurement project worth Rp1 trillion at the National Nutrition Agency under the leadership of Dadan Hindayana. The Director of Investigation at the Junior Attorney General for Special Crimes, Syarief Sulaeman Nahdi, said this is because the procured goods are now scattered across various regions. “No [they will not be seized]. The thing is, if the goods have already reached the regions and are already in use, we certainly will not carry out a seizure. Because seizures are perhaps intended for use as samples, just samples,” Syarief told reporters on Thursday (4/6). “So there is no need to seize everything. All items can be used in their respective regions. What we are investigating are the trails of that procurement,” he continued. Syarief stated that regarding the alleged practice of price mark-up in the project, his party is still awaiting a definitive audit result. Meanwhile, Syarief emphasised that the search for evidence is ongoing. To date, the investigation team is still conducting searches at several locations. Previously, the Attorney General’s Office named former BGN Head Dadan Hindayana and two former Deputy Heads of BGN, Sony Sonjaya and Lodewyk Pusung, as suspects on Wednesday (3/6). The determination was made a day after Dadan and his colleagues were removed from their positions at BGN by President Prabowo Subianto. The dismissal was announced by Minister of State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi on Tuesday (2/6) evening. Prasetyo revealed at the time that the dismissal of Dadan and the others was due to disciplinary violations in the governance of the Free Nutritious Meal programme. As Dadan’s replacement, Prabowo appointed Deputy Head of BGN Nanik S Deyang as Head of BGN. To replace Sony and Lodewyk, Prabowo appointed Agustina Arum Sari and Major General Trenggono as Deputy Heads of BGN. In the alleged corruption case within BGN, the Attorney General’s Office stated that Dadan and the other suspects allegedly intervened in the procurement of goods for the Free Nutritious Meal programme. One instance was the electric motorcycle procurement project worth Rp1 trillion, which was awarded to a vendor that did not meet the requirements. “The procurement of 21,801 electric motorcycles with a total procurement value of Rp1,035,515,297,908.02 has been paid to PT YAT, which did not meet the requirements as a vendor because it lacked an active dealership or workshop and there was a mark-up,” stated Jeffry in his announcement on Wednesday night. Jeffry explained that the suspects allegedly intervened with the Commitment Making Officer in the drafting of the Terms of Reference. Consequently, the procurement of goods was not arranged according to actual needs in the field and triggered state financial losses. Besides the electric motorcycles, the Attorney General’s Office found details of alleged mark-ups on several other goods procurements that did not directly support the operational implementation of the Free Nutritious Meal programme. “The procurement of 32,000 pairs of shoes that did not comply with regulations and included a mark-up, the procurement of 31,994 tablet units that did not comply with regulations and included a mark-up,” Jeffry said. “As well as the procurement of 5,400 units of 75-inch televisions that did not comply with regulations and included a mark-up,” he added.