TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Attorney General's Office (AGO) has again summoned Minister of Communication and Information (Kominfo), Johnny G. Plate, as a witness in the corruption case for the construction of the 4G Base Transceivers Station (BTS) tower.

“[The minister is] examined as a witness,” said Ketut Sumedana, head of the AGO's Center for Law Information, on Wednesday, May 17, 2023.

Ketut explained that Plate was scheduled to be questioned at 09:00 Jakarta time for the suspect Irwan Hermawan, who is a Commissioner of PT Solitechmedia Synergy. PT Solitech is one of the companies selected as the contractor for the tower construction project.

AGO had twice questioned the NasDem Party politician in the BTS project corruption case. The first examination was on February 14, 2023. Investigators then summoned him again on March 15, 2023. During the first examination, the minister was grilled with 51 questions regarding the planning and evaluation of the construction of the thousands of towers.

Plate stated after the first inspection that he had responded responsibly to every question and was ready for more examinations. “If the Attorney General's Office still needs my statement as a citizen and head of the ministry, as well as assistant to the president in the field of informatics, I will respect and conduct it properly,” he said.

The BTS construction project is executed by the ministry’s Telecommunications and Information Accessibility Agency Business Service Agency (BAKTI). It is a multi-year project that costs up to Rp11 trillion, including the construction of around 9,000 transmitter towers in thousands of villages and sub-districts across the country’s frontier, outermost, and remote (3T) regions.

The AGO has named 5 suspects in this corruption case, viz. Bakti president director Anang Achmad Latif and four private parties. They allegedly organized an evil conspiracy to arrange the project tenders and blow up prices.

M ROSSENO AJI

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