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AGO nabs three suspects in BTS graft case
AGO investigators arrested on Wednesday three suspects in connection with the graft case surrounding the BTS procurement auction, part of the 4G infrastructure development project helmed by the communication ministry's accessibility agency, BAKTI.
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Officers from the Attorney General’s Office flank Anang Achmad Latief as he is taken into custody on Jan. 4, 2022 on graft allegations. (Kejagung RI/-)
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he Attorney General's Office (AGO) has named and arrested three suspects in the corruption case involving base transceiver station (BTS) procurement by the Telecommunication and Information Accessibility Agency (BAKTI), an agency under the Communications and Information Ministry
The AGO’s special crimes investigation team arrested on Jan. 4 BAKTI president director Anang Achmad Latif, PT Mora Telematika Indonesia president director Galumbang Menak Simajuntak and human development expert Yohan Suryanto from the University of Indonesia (UI).
In a press statement on Wednesday, the AGO said Anang was suspected of issuing a set of rules deliberately crafted to allow specific bidders to win the BTS procurement auction at a marked-up price, hindering healthy business competition.
Galumbang was arrested on suspicion of providing input and suggestions on the rules Anang drafted to benefit the BTS vendor, consortium and affiliated company that supplied one of the devices.
Yohan was arrested on suspicion of unlawfully exploiting the UI work unit HUDEV to create a fake technical research to support Anang in marking up the price.
All three have been detained for 20 days at Salemba Penitentiary in Central Jakarta. Following their arrest, the AGO investigation team has searched the suspects’ residences, located in four different areas.
The BAKTI network deployment project aimed to provide 4G infrastructure in frontier, outermost and remote regions (3T).
Read also: Digital equality in Indonesia jeopardized by alleged BTS corruption
The ministry appointed to spearhead the noncommercial project, which kicked off in 2020 and targeted providing network coverage to 7,904 mobile black spots by 2023. The project was to be carried out in two phases, with 4,200 BTS towers erected during the first phase to be completed in 2022, and the remaining towers to be installed this year.
As of the second quarter of 2022, however, the project had erected only between 2,060 and 2,070 BTS towers.
