Jokowi Confronted with Questions of Graft Suspect Johnny G. Plate
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7 June 2023 22:49 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Wednesday remained tight-lipped as he was presented with questions about finding a replacement for Johnny G. Plate – former Minister of Communications and Informatics (Kominfo) – who the Attorney General’s Office nabbed in links to a major corruption case.
Jokowi efficiently said “Not yet,” as he was asked by journalists at the Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in East Jakarta on June 7.
He gave the same answer and swiftly continued his journey when he was asked whether a replacement for Johnny would be sourced from the same political party as NasDem.
Jokowi had appointed the Coordinating Minister of Politics, Law, and Security Affairs (Menkopolhukam) Mahfud Md to assume the acting minister of Communications and Informatics. Mahfud was also tasked to reveal the details of the corruption case.
On Monday, Mahfud directly presented his analysis of this case to the President and noted that the project worth more than Rp28 trillion initially ran smoothly in the 2006 - 2019 period and began to be marred in issues in 2020.
"Problems have arisen since the 2020 budget year, namely when the project worth Rp 28 trillion was disbursed first amounting to around Rp 10 trillion in 2020-2021," Mahfud said.
However, when reports regarding the project had to be accounted for in December 2021, Mahfud said that the BTS towers that were erected did not meet the scheduled targets. The Ministry of Communications at that time reasoned that the towers’ construction was backtracked due to the Covid-19 pandemic and asked for an extension until March 2022.
"This should not be legally permissible, but was eventually granted an extension until March 21 for that," said Mahfud.
However in Mahfud's same report to Jokowi, as March arrived, there were only around 1,100 towers built out of the targeted 4,200 towers. In reality and based on satellite imagery, of the 1,100 claimed, only 958 towers have been traced that cost Rp2.1 trillion, which should have used up to Rp10 trillion, which means the mega project had a deficit of Rp8 trillion in the actual constructions alone.
M JULNIS FIRMANSYAH
Editor's Choice: Johnny G. Plate Status as Nasdem Politician to Be Announced after AGO Inquiry
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