Former West Java governor and Jakarta gubernatorial nominee Ridwan Kamil (second left) cooks traditional Betawi kerak telor on Sept. 4, 2024, during his visit to the Setu Babakan Betawi cultural village in Jakarta to meet with former Jakarta governor Fauzi Bowo. - Antara via The Jakarta Post/ANN
JAKARTA: The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is planning to summons former popular West Java governor Ridwan Kamil of Golkar Party as a witness in their investigation into a botched procurement at publicly listed lender Bank BJB.
This comes after KPK investigators last week searched Ridwan’s house in Bandung, the capital city of West Java, as part of their probe into the embezzlement scheme in the procurement of advertising services at Bank BJB, the regional development bank of West Java and Banten.
“We will certainly question [Ridwan] as a witness because we need information from him regarding what he knows about the case,” KPK chairman Setyo Budiyanto told The Jakarta Post on Monday (March 17).
Even so, KPK spokesperson Tessa Mahardhika said investigators have not yet issued the warrant for summonsing Ridwan or decided when the questioning will be. The alleged corruption happened from 2021 to 2023, when Ridwan still served as the West Java governor.
While Ridwan is not a suspect in the case, the KPK named five suspects last week. They are former Bank BJB president director Yuddy Renaldi and its former corporate secretary Widi Hartono as well as owners of three advertising agencies: Kin Asikin Dulmanan, Suhendrik and Raden Sophan Jaya Kusuma.
Various media reports indicated that Ridwan was not seen during or after the raid on March 10, although a luxury car left his house later at night. While it remains unclear who was in the car, KPK investigation director Asep Guntur Rahayu told the media on Sunday that Ridwan was in fact in the house during the search and that he “was cooperating fully with the investigators at the time”, Kompas reported.
Ridwan, popularly known as Kang Emil, served as two-time West Java governor from late 2018 to 2023. He has been out of the public limelight since losing the Jakarta gubernatorial race four months ago.
Ridwan has yet to directly comment on the search or the case, but Golkar West Java office secretary Iswara was quoted by Kompas as saying on Saturday that Ridwan told him recently that he had nothing to do with the corruption.
Golkar officials were not immediately available to answer the Post’s request for further comment, but Golkar secretary-general Sarmuji said on Sunday that the party would respect the investigation and that it was “ready to provide legal counsel for [Ridwan] if needed”, Kompas reported.
According to the KPK investigation, Bank BJB initially earmarked Rp 409 billion (US$24 million) from its budget for advertising in various channels through six agencies from 2021 to 2023 but spent only around Rp 100 billion (US$6 million) of the budget for advertising.
Investigators accused the two BJB higher-ups, Yuddy and Widi, of rigging the tender for the advertising program to let six agencies win the project and suspected that the Rp 222 billion (US$12 million) was used as kickbacks for the agencies.
The KPK has not yet detained Yuddy, Widi or any of three other suspects, but is barring them from leaving Indonesia for six months effective from Feb. 28.
The search of Ridwan’s house was followed by a series of raids in more than a dozen locations last week, including at the headquarters of Bank BJB in Bandung. KPK senior investigator Budi Sokmo Wibowo said that the agency seized documents and financial records during the operations, including from Ridwan’s house, which will help investigators uncover who else received the stolen money.
“We will follow where all this money goes,” Budi told a press briefing on Friday. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
