While Crying, Amsal Sitepu Denies Budget Mark-up: I Love the Land of Karo So Much

Jakarta, VIVA – Videographer from Karo Regency, Amsal Christy Sitepu, complained to Commission III of the Indonesian House of Representatives on Monday, 30 March 2026. He is accused of inflating the budget for producing profile videos for 20 villages in Karo, North Sumatra.

Amsal recounted the beginning of the case that ensnared him in front of all members of Commission III of the House of Representatives who attended the closed meeting.

He started offering village profile video production services to make ends meet during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit Indonesia, he claimed to frequently produce wedding videos and music video clips. His projects dried up because the pandemic struck at that time. He then pivoted and set a price of Rp30 million per village.

However, he is accused of inflating the budget for producing videos for 20 villages in Karo. Prosecutors and auditors assessed that he bloated the budget for several of his services, such as ideas, editing, and others. Those prosecutors, he said, considered the services offered by Amsal should be free.

“And to this day, I am actually very confused about this situation. And in the trial, I found that in the audit report, it was found that the mark-up was discovered because there were items that were zeroed out by the auditor and approved by the public prosecutor in his indictment letter,” said Amsal.

“There are ideas, the amount for ideas in the proposal is Rp2 million, editing Rp1 million, cutting Rp1 million, dubbing Rp1 million, clip on or microphone Rp900 thousand, the total is Rp5.9 million, all of this was considered zero by the auditor or the public prosecutor. That’s a brief story of the profile video production,” he continued.

Not long after, Amsal cried while telling his story to the legislators. He also asked for justice to be on his side.

“Today I am only seeking justice, I am a creative economy worker. What I fear is that if this happens, we are young people, Indonesian creative economy workers will be afraid to collaborate with the government. I am just seeking justice, sir. I am just an ordinary creative economy worker, sir, I have no authority over the budget, sir, simply put, I am just selling,” said Amsal.