Appearance of Holiday Allowance Money from Cilacap Regent's Extortion Revealed

Jakarta — The Indonesian Anti-Corruption Commission (KPK) has displayed several goodie bags containing holiday allowances (THR) obtained through extortion by Cilacap Regent Syamsul Auliya Rachman.

At the press conference venue, eight goodie bags were placed on a conference table. Two KPK officials removed cash in denominations of IDR 50,000 and IDR 100,000 notes from the bags. The cash was placed in white envelopes, tied with rubber bands, and some in clear plastic bags.

The goodie bags containing THR were originally intended to be distributed to regional leadership forums (Forkopimda) within the Cilacap District Government. The amounts of THR provided varied depending on the receiving institution, ranging from IDR 20 million, IDR 50 million, to IDR 100 million.

The KPK has named two suspects in this case: Cilacap Regent Syamsul Auliya Rachman and Cilacap Regional Secretary Sadmoko Danardono.

According to Syamsul’s calculations, THR for external parties required IDR 515 million. However, he targeted extracting a total of IDR 750 million. Cash totalling IDR 610 million was seized from the residence of Ferry Adhi Dharma, the Regent’s Assistant II for Cilacap District, who was ordered by Syamsul to collect THR funds from regional government work units (SKPD).

Syamsul and Sadmoko have been immediately detained at the KPK detention facility for the next 20 days. The suspects have been charged under Article 12 letter e and/or Article 12B of Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Corruption Crimes, as amended by Law Number 20 of 2001 regarding the eradication of corruption crimes, and Article 20 letter c of Law Number 1 of 2023 concerning the Criminal Code.