Glory Sihombing Named Sixth Suspect in Free Nutritious Meal Corruption Case
The Attorney General’s Office has named Glory Harimas Sihombing, chairman of the Indonesia Food Security Review foundation, as the sixth suspect in an alleged corruption case concerning the management of the Free Nutritious Meal programme at the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) for the 2025-2026 period. The announcement was made during a press briefing at the Junior Attorney General for Special Crimes building in South Jakarta on Thursday evening.
Head of the Attorney General’s Legal Information Centre, Anang Supriatna, stated that the suspect’s designation followed the collection of two sufficient pieces of evidence. He added that the investigation was conducted thoroughly, professionally, and accountably, while upholding the principle of caution and the presumption of innocence.
Five other suspects had previously been named: BGN Head Dadan Hindayana, former BGN Deputy Heads Sony Sonjaya and Lodewyk Pusung, Sony’s associate Asep Yusuf Somantri, and PT Yasa Artha Trimanunggal Commissioner Andri Mulyono.
Anang explained that the government launched the priority programme on 6 January 2025, providing free nutritious meals to meet the nutritional adequacy rate of schoolchildren, with a total budget of Rp85.27 trillion for 2025 and Rp268 trillion for 2026 sourced from the state budget. The programme was supposed to be managed by foundations at each school, but in practice, the appointed partners were foundations affiliated with BGN officials that did not meet the requirements. These foundations received incentives worth billions of rupiah per day.
Glory Sihombing, a private sector figure, was allegedly asked by BGN Head Dadan Hindayana to find partners for the programme’s implementation. Dadan unlawfully provided Glory with access to SPPG kitchen locations. After acquiring these locations, Glory’s foundation sold them to interested parties using falsified documents, resulting in discrepancies between the proposed and actual kitchen sites. Glory then requested changes to the locations, which were processed by verifiers appointed by Dadan.
Glory was also given access to communicate with the verification team, enabling him to manage the rollback of SPPG statuses under his foundation’s auspices. He is further accused of unlawfully providing money, in both foreign and local currency, in cash to Dadan Hindayana, sourced from partners seeking assistance to become programme partners.
Glory Sihombing has been charged under multiple articles of Indonesia’s anti-corruption law and the criminal code. He has been detained for 20 days at the Salemba detention centre branch of the Attorney General’s Office.