Police Raid Five Offices in Gowa Over IDR 16 Billion Uniform Corruption Case
The Corruption Sub-directorate (Tipikor) team of South Sulawesi Regional Police carried out a large-scale search of the Gowa Regency Education Office and four other government offices on Thursday (30/7). The move forms part of the expanded investigation into an alleged corruption case involving the procurement of free school uniforms worth Rp16 billion.
The search, which began at 14.45 WITA, was tightly guarded by heavily armed officers from the Gowa Police. Personnel combed through a number of rooms to find procurement documents and seized several items of evidence, which were placed in large boxes.
The Head of the Tipikor Sub-directorate of the Criminal Investigation Unit of South Sulawesi Regional Police, Assistant Superintendant Jufri, explained that the operation targeted five key points within the Gowa Regency Government. “We are conducting searches at five locations simultaneously: the Regional Secretary’s office, the Inspectorate, Bappeda, DPKD, and finally the Education Office. This is to gather evidence related to the procurement and selection of the uniforms,” Jufri said at the scene.
Beyond the search for documents, the raid underscores police efforts to track down a key figure with the initials BK, alias Muhammad Basri (Om Bas). BK, described as a political consultant to the Gowa Regent, is known to have twice failed to appear when summoned by investigators.
“We sent the first summons two weeks ago and the second yesterday. We are asking Muhammad Basri to cooperate and promptly answer the investigators’ summons,” Jufri asserted.
Police have threatened to use coercive legal measures should BK ignore a third summons. They stated that summons letters have been sent to his address as listed on his identity card as well as through people close to him.
The case relates to a procurement project of around 20,000 school uniform packages for primary and junior secondary school students in Gowa Regency for the 2025 fiscal year. The total budget, sourced from the regional budget (APBD), amounted to Rp16 billion.
To date, the case has been elevated to the investigation stage, with a total of 27 witnesses examined. A day before the raid, Gowa Regent Sitti Husniah Talenrang also underwent questioning for nearly eight hours at South Sulawesi Regional Police headquarters as a witness.
Although searches and witness examinations are being accelerated, police stated that no suspect has yet been formally named in the alleged corruption case.