New Suspect's Role in Free Nutritious Meal Programme: Trading SPPG Locations, Kickbacks to Dadan

The Attorney General’s Office (Kejagung) has stated that former National Nutrition Agency (BGN) head Dadan Hindayana (DH) received a series of cash payments from the buying and selling of locations for the Nutrition Fulfilment Service Units (SPPG). Director of Investigation for the Junior Attorney General for Special Crimes, Syarief Sulaeman Nahdi, said the money was received by Dadan from the Chairman of the Indonesia Food Security Review Foundation, Glory Harimas Sihombing (GHS). He explained that this began when Dadan tasked Glory with finding foundation partners for the SPPG units in the Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) programme. “DH unlawfully provided access to GHS to obtain SPPG kitchen locations for foundations owned by GHS,” he stated during a press conference on Thursday (18/6). Syarief said that afterwards, Glory actually sold the kitchen locations he had acquired to other parties interested in establishing SPPGs at those sites. He noted that Glory was also given access by Dadan to communicate with the BGN’s verification team, allowing Glory to determine the statuses of foundations affiliated with him. “After arranging these SPPG locations, GHS unlawfully provided a sum of money, both in foreign currency and rupiah, to DH,” he clarified. Syarief stated that the cash originated from MBG programme partners who sought help from Dadan and Glory to get their SPPG establishments approved. Previously, the Kejagung had named a total of five suspects in the corruption case concerning the governance of the Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) programme for the 2025-2026 period. The five are former BGN Head Dadan Hindayana; former BGN Deputy Heads Sony Sonjaya and Lodewyk Pusung; Sony’s associate, Asep Yusuf Somantri (AYS); and PT Yasa Artha Trimanunggal (YAT) Commissioner, Andri Mulyono. In this case, the Kejagung explained that the MBG programme was supposed to be managed by SPPG foundations affiliated with recipient schools. However, in practice, many SPPGs were appointed because they had affiliations with BGN officials. Furthermore, many foundations did not actually meet the requirements to become SPPG partners. Additionally, there was a mark-up in the price of procured goods, resulting in losses that did not support the operational implementation of the MBG. This included 21,801 electric motorcycles valued at IDR 1.03 trillion, 32,000 pairs of shoes, 31,994 tablet units, and 5,400 75-inch televisions.