Pretrial Hearing: Lodewyk Pusung Claims No Intervention in BGN Procurement
Lodewyk Pusung, a suspect in the alleged corruption case involving the governance of the Free Nutritious Meals programme, has claimed that he never intervened and was unable to intervene in procurements at the National Nutrition Agency. He made the statement while appearing online during a continuation of a pretrial hearing at the Central Jakarta District Court on Thursday (20/8).
“I fully understand that I am only a deputy, so it is impossible for me to intervene in those procurements. Frankly, I was never invited to procurement meetings. I never participated in procurement meetings,” Lodewyk said before the judge.
He stated that he only chaired one meeting, which took place at the Ministry of Agriculture building. The meeting discussed planning and the use of technology. “At that meeting, it was formulated what IT would be handed over to the nutrition state-owned company, and I said there that I would not interfere in this matter,” he added.
Lodewyk also asserted that he did not receive anything from the procurements that had been carried out by the National Nutrition Agency. “That is why, if the witnesses earlier said, Your Honour, that I did not receive anything because they know I did not dare attend meetings and I was never present at procurement meetings discussing that, because it is the business of the Commitment Making Officer, then the Budget User Authority, the Corruption Eradication Commission, and the Audit Board. I understand. If I am said to have intervened in that procurement, I apologise but I say I was not involved at all. If perhaps someone came and we then directed them to the authorised party, maybe there was,” he said. “But, as far as I remember, I did not do that,” he continued.
Lodewyk filed the pretrial motion at the Central Jakarta District Court to examine the legality of the seizure process carried out by investigators from the Junior Attorney General for Special Crimes at the Attorney General’s Office. This is the second legal action taken by Lodewyk after he was named a suspect and detained by the Attorney General’s Office.
Previously, the sole judge at the South Jakarta District Court, Abdul Affandi, declared that Lodewyk’s pretrial motion regarding his suspect designation could not be accepted. “Declares that the pretrial petition filed by the Petitioner cannot be accepted. Orders the Petitioner to pay court costs amounting to nil,” the judge said in the ruling read out at the hearing on Thursday (30/7).
At least seven people have been processed by the Attorney General’s Office as suspects in the alleged corruption case concerning the governance of the Free Nutritious Meals programme at the National Nutrition Agency. They are former Head of the National Nutrition Agency Dadan Hindayana; former Deputy Heads of the National Nutrition Agency Sony Sonjaya and Lodewyk Pusung; Sony’s associate Asep Yusuf Somantri; and Commissioner of PT Yasa Artha Trimanunggal Andri Mulyono. Also named are Chairman of the Indonesia Food Security Review Foundation Glory Harimas Sihombing; and Secretary of the Deputy for Promotion and Cooperation at the National Nutrition Agency, Police Brigadier General Lalu Muhammad Iwan Mahardan.
The Attorney General’s Office explained that the Free Nutritious Meals programme should have been managed by the Nutrition Service and Fulfilment Unit foundations affiliated with recipient schools. However, in practice, many such foundations were appointed because they had affiliations with senior officials at the National Nutrition Agency. In addition, many foundations did not actually meet the requirements to become partners of the Nutrition Service and Fulfilment Unit.
Furthermore, there were alleged mark-ups in the prices of procured goods, resulting in losses that did not support the operational implementation of the Free Nutritious Meals programme. These included 21,801 electric motorcycles worth Rp1.03 trillion, 32,000 pairs of shoes, 31,994 tablet units, and 5,400 75-inch television units.