Mahfud MD Comments on Dadan Hindayana Named Suspect in Free Nutritious Meal Programme Corruption Case
The former Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs, as well as Indonesian constitutional law expert, Mahfud MD, has assessed that the former Head of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN), Dadan Hindayana, lacks bureaucratic experience and an understanding of state financial law. “Mr Dadan has no experience in bureaucracy and does not understand state financial law, acting as if everything can be done at will,” Mahfud stated when met at Le Gareca Space, Bantul, DIY, on Saturday afternoon.
In Mahfud’s view, the BGN under Dadan’s leadership frequently sparked controversy by procuring items deemed irrelevant to the Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) programme, such as electric motorcycles and socks. Consequently, Mahfud welcomed the Attorney General’s Office’s (Kejagung) move to investigate the alleged corruption in the MBG programme’s management involving Dadan and two former deputies of the BGN, namely Sony Sonjaya and Lodewyk Pusung, all of whom have been named suspects.
“He simply lacks the competence; the reality is that everything is poor, and all the contracts created involve many things that are irrelevant to MBG matters,” Mahfud asserted. He added that the situation might be even worse than what has been revealed, as more details are expected to emerge during court proceedings.
Mahfud personally views the MBG programme as a positive initiative. However, he believes that under Dadan’s leadership—who also lacks expertise in the field of nutrition—the programme’s implementation has been reckless. Mahfud noted that during the first three months of implementation, various problems, protests, and calls for evaluation had already surfaced, yet the management remained poor. “In the first months, the recklessness was already evident. There was no distinction between the concept of free nutritious meals from a state perspective and the nutritional requirements for daily needs,” he concluded.
The Attorney General’s Office has officially named Dadan Hindayana, along with former BGN Deputy Heads Sony Sonjaya and Lodewyk Pusung, as suspects in the MBG programme management corruption case. Regarding the case, the Director of Investigation for the Junior Attorney General for Special Crimes, Syarief Sulaeman Nahdi, explained that the MBG programme should have been managed by foundations affiliated with recipient schools. However, in practice, many School Nutrition Implementation Units (SPPG) were appointed due to their affiliations with BGN officials. Syarief stated that these foundations, which lacked the necessary requirements to be SPPG partners, were receiving billions of rupiah in daily incentives and were owned by affiliates of DH, SS, and LP.