Former Acting Governor of South Sulawesi Bahtiar Baharuddin Charged with Pineapple Seedling Procurement Corruption

The Special Crimes Prosecutors’ Office of the South Sulawesi High Prosecutor’s Office has designated six suspects, including former Acting Governor of South Sulawesi Bahtiar Baharuddin (BB), with five of them immediately detained over allegations of corruption in the procurement of pineapple seedlings in 2024 valued at 60 billion rupiah.

“Today at 21:40 WITA, the Special Crimes investigators of the South Sulawesi High Prosecutor’s Office detained five suspects in relation to the alleged corruption offences in the pineapple seedling procurement project at the Food Security, Food Crops, Horticulture and Plantation Service,” stated Head of the South Sulawesi High Prosecutor’s Office Didik Farkhan Alisyahdi at a case disclosure at the Prosecutor’s Office in Makassar on Monday evening.

The designation and detention of suspects followed the investigators’ acquisition of at least two valid and sufficient pieces of evidence, he explained to journalists.

“This indicates unlawful conduct resulting in state losses of approximately 50 billion rupiah as calculated by BPKP, which will be released shortly,” Didik stated.

The five detained suspects are: BB, former Acting Governor of South Sulawesi; RM, director of PT AAN (the supplier); RE, director of PT CAP (the activity implementer); HS, as an advisor to the Acting Governor in 2023-2024; and RRS, a civil servant from the Takalar District Administration.

In addition to these five suspects, investigators have also designated one further suspect with initials UN, serving as Budget User Authority (KPA) at BPK, as a suspect. However, he did not attend the examination summons today, citing illness.

The detention of the five suspects was carried out separately. Suspect Bahtiar Baharuddin is held at Maros District Class IIB Penitentiary, whilst the four other suspects—RM, RE, HS and RRS—are held at Gunung Sari Class IA Penitentiary in Makassar.

The suspects are charged with violating the law under Article 603 of Law No. 1 of 2023 concerning the Criminal Code, read in conjunction with Article 20 letter c of Law No. 1 of 2023 concerning the Criminal Code.