Attorney General's Office Reveals Alleged Rp10.5 Trillion Waste in Free Nutritious Meal Programme
Jakarta, VIVA – A pre-trial hearing filed by former Deputy Head of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) Lodewyk Pusung has revealed new facts in the investigation into alleged corruption in the Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) programme.
At a hearing at the South Jakarta District Court on Tuesday, 28 July 2026, the Attorney General’s Office (Kejagung) said an audit had found alleged budget waste amounting to Rp10.5 trillion each year.
The figure was presented by the prosecution team when responding to Lodewyk’s pre-trial application challenging his designation as a suspect in the alleged corruption case surrounding the governance of the MBG programme.
“The special-purpose audit working papers on the governance of the MBG programme by BPKP state that waste occurred in the Free Nutritious Meal programme at the National Nutrition Agency amounting to Rp10.5 trillion per year,” the prosecutor said, as quoted on Wednesday, 29 July 2026.
Despite revealing such a staggering figure of alleged waste, the prosecution team has not yet elaborated on how the figure was calculated or what form the waste took. The explanation was deliberately withheld, as it was deemed to have entered the substance of the case, which will be tested at the main trial.
The prosecutor stressed that the pre-trial hearing serves only to examine whether the procedure for designating suspects was lawful, and therefore does not yet address criminal elements or a detailed calculation of state losses.
“As for whether or not there was criminal intent or mens rea, and how much the other losses to state finances amounted to and how they were calculated, these have entered the core subject matter of the case,” he said.
In this case, the Attorney General’s Office has named seven people as suspects. Three of them are former officials of the National Nutrition Agency, namely former Head of BGN Dadan Hindayana, former Deputy Head of BGN Sony Sonjaya, and former Deputy Head of BGN Lodewyk Pusung.
In addition, investigators have also charged Asep Yusuf Somantri, a confidant of Sony Sonjaya; Commissioner of PT Yasa Artha Trimanunggal Andri Mulyono, the BGN’s electric motorcycle supplier; Chairman of the Indonesia Food Security Review Foundation Glory Harimas Sihombing; and former Head of the BGN’s Legal and Public Relations Bureau Lalu Muhammad Iwan Mahardan.
The seven suspects are alleged to have secured the passage of affiliated foundations as Nutrition Fulfilment Service Unit (SPPG) partners despite them not meeting requirements. They are also suspected of manipulating the determination of SPPG locations, carrying out mark-ups, and procuring a number of goods deemed unnecessary for the implementation of the MBG programme.