South Sulawesi High Prosecutor's Office Investigates Education Officials in Digital Library Corruption Case

Makassar - The Special Crimes Unit of the South Sulawesi High Prosecutor’s Office is continuing to investigate the alleged involvement of officials from the Provincial Government’s Education Agency in a suspected corruption case related to the procurement of a Digital Library (Bookless Library) for the 2022-2023 fiscal year.

“We are still investigating who must be held accountable and gathering the evidence. Besides teachers and school principals who have been examined, we have also examined the Head of the Senior High School Division, the Head of the Education Agency, and the Technical Activity Implementation Officer. Both the current and former Heads of the Agency have been examined,” said Aspidsus of the South Sulawesi High Prosecutor’s Office, Rachmat Supriady, in Makassar on Thursday.

He confirmed that the inquiry into this case has been underway for a year and was only uncovered after a number of irregularities were found in the Digital Library procurement project, prompting the inquiry to be elevated to the investigation stage.

“This inquiry has been carried out since about last year, and we then elevated it to the investigation stage because there is clear evidence of indications of criminal acts of corruption,” he stated.

The investigation will also be directed towards members of the South Sulawesi Provincial Legislative Council (DPRD) concerning the budget planning proposal for the project to clarify the investigation process.

“That is why we are investigating the planning stage. Because there was no planning, the question is where did this budget suddenly come from. Therefore, during the search, we are looking deeper into the budgeting issue,” he said.

The project was an activity in the 2022-2023 fiscal year. The budget for the Digital Library was Rp9 billion, while the budget for electronic book activities was around Rp9 billion to Rp10 billion, bringing the total estimated budget to Rp19 billion.

This case is indicated to involve misappropriation based on findings from the 2024 Audit Report of the Audit Board of Indonesia (BPK). Further investigation revealed larger irregularities than those findings, as the BPK only took a few samples. A strong indication is that the application can no longer be used.

From the search results, a number of documents were seized, particularly regarding planning, as from the beginning of the procurement there was no form of planning, including a needs analysis related to the implementation of the Digital Library.