Jakarta High Prosecutor's Office Arrests New Suspects in Public Works Ministry Fictitious Project Case

The Jakarta High Prosecutor’s Office has arrested two new suspects who are employees of the Ministry of Public Works in connection with an alleged corruption case involving fictitious projects within the Secretariat of the Directorate General of Human Settlements for the 2023–2025 period.

“The roles of suspects SKN and MT, as employees at the Directorate General of Human Settlements, were to jointly engineer fictitious projects with other suspects at the Secretariat of the Directorate General of Human Settlements during the 2023 and 2024 period,” said Dapot Dariarma, Head of the Legal Information Section at the Jakarta High Prosecutor’s Office, during a press conference at the office on Thursday.

Dapot identified the two suspects as Sukino and Muhammad Taufiq, both employees at the Secretariat of the Directorate General of Human Settlements within the Ministry of Public Works. The actions of the suspects resulted in state financial losses amounting to Rp16 billion.

He added that investigators are continuing to gather evidence and investigate the involvement of other parties, whether from the Ministry of Public Works, state-owned enterprises, or the private sector. To date, investigators are also developing the case by examining witnesses, including state financial experts and the suspects themselves.

Furthermore, investigators are tracking and seizing assets to increase the recovery of state financial losses. For their actions, suspects M. Taufik and Sukino have been detained at the Cipinang Detention Centre in East Jakarta.

They are charged under Article 603 or Article 604 in conjunction with Article 20 letter c in conjunction with Article 126 paragraph 1 of the National Criminal Code, in conjunction with Article 18 paragraph 1 of Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Corruption.

Previously, on Thursday (21/5), two suspects were detained: Riono Suprapto, the former Secretary of the Directorate General of Human Settlements, and Adi Suaidi, a Commitment Making Officer. Then, on Wednesday (24/6), investigators also named and detained two private sector individuals. They are RW, Director of CV TAS, and JSR, Director of PT BKS, who were vendors or service providers for projects at the Directorate General of Human Settlements of the Ministry of Public Works.

With these latest arrests, investigators have now named a total of six suspects in the case.