Judge examines former Sumbawa Regent in MXGP Samota land corruption trial
Mataram (ANTARA) - The Corruption Crimes Panel of Judges at the Mataram District Court, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), examined former Sumbawa Regent Mahmud Abdullah as a witness in the trial concerning the corruption case of procuring land for the MXGP Samota circuit in 2022.
Mahmud Abdullah, who served as Regent of Sumbawa for the 2021-2025 period, provided testimony in his capacity as chairman of the land procurement implementation team by the Sumbawa Regency Government.
“At that time, the procurement was under the authority of the NTB Governor, but there was a delegation to me as regent as the implementation chairman,” he said before the panel of judges chaired by Lalu Moh. Sandi Iramaya at the Mataram District Court on Wednesday.
The former regent, familiarly known as Haji Mo, explained that the delegation was followed up by forming a team, from the preparation stage, planning, implementation, to the procurement results.
The delegation, he said, came from the NTB Governor at that time, Zulkieflimansyah, after witnessing the euphoria of the 2022 MXGP Samota event.
“So, after the event was completed, the land procurement process began,” he stated.
According to the local government, he said, the international-scale event had a positive impact on the economy of the people in Sumbawa Regency.
Thus, from the 2022 MXGP Samota implementation, which was still on loan from the landowner, Ali Bin Dachlan, former East Lombok Regent, the government decided to pursue making this event a routine activity in tourism development by procuring the land.
“So, we saw it from the perspective of benefits, the enthusiasm of the event, especially during COVID-19, it was quite high, that’s why we carried out the procurement,” he said.
In an effort to realise that endeavour, he admitted that the government at that time did not budget for the sports facilities and infrastructure development project in the Samota area in the 2022 Regional Budget.
The government at that time circumvented it by applying for a loan of Rp50 billion from Bank NTB Syariah.
“Because it wasn’t budgeted in the Regional Budget, we borrowed from Bank NTB Syariah,” said the witness.
After receiving support for the development budget, Haji Mo, as the implementation chairman, formed a feasibility study team in the planning stage.
At this stage, Haji Mo admitted to many oversights. He only stated that he entrusted this planning stage to the feasibility study team.
“So, there are respective tasks, there is a team that can explain,” he said.
He only ensured that the feasibility study team had issued results followed up with an assessment of the price of the 70-hectare land object by the appraisal team from the Public Appraiser Office (KJPP) Pung’s Zulkarnain, owned by the defendant Muhammad Jan and Saifullah Zulkarnain.
“How much? I don’t remember, tens of billions, clearly it has been paid,” he said.
Regarding the procurement results, Haji Mo admitted he did not check directly in the field. He only knew from information from his subordinates.
“Later, the secretary will answer, I don’t know,” he said.
“That’s the team,” said Haji Mo.
There are three defendants in this case. Besides from the appraisal team, one is the former Head of the National Land Agency (BPN) Sumbawa, Subhan.
In the indictment, the three are charged with violating Article 603 and/or Article 604 in conjunction with Article 20 letter a or c of Law Number 1 of 2023 on the Criminal Code.
In this case, the prosecutor’s office has found a state financial loss figure from the audit by the BPKP NTB Representative of Rp6.7 billion.
The auditor stated that the figure arose from the excess payment difference over the land price from Rp44.8 billion to Rp52 billion.
The emergence of that loss figure has been followed up by the land seller who received payment from the Sumbawa Regency Government, Ali Bin Dachlan, by returning the full Rp6.7 billion to the prosecutors at the investigation stage.