TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
BPK report deceitful, doesn’t make sense: Ahok
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama answers questions from journalists at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Headquarters on Tuesday. KPK investigators grilled Ahok for 12 hours as a witness in the case of alleged irregularities in the procurement of land for Sumber Waras Hospital as reported by the Supreme Audit Agency. (Antara/Hafidz Mubarak A.)
J
akarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama has slammed the report by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) into alleged irregularities in the procurement of land for the Sumber Waras Hospital, currently being investigated by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), describing the report incorrect and deceitful.
Investigators from the KPK questioned Ahok for12 hours on Tuesday regarding the land procurement, which the BPK claimed had caused state losses of Rp 191 billion ($14.5 million).
"The BPK report is deceitful. Their finding of state losses does not make any sense," he told journalists on Wednesday at City Hall.
The antigraft commission grilled Ahok on Tuesday as a witness based on the irregularities found by the BPK in the city's procurement of 3.7 hectares adjacent to Sumber Waras Hospital in West Jakarta for a cardiac and cancer center.
The BPK said the price had been inflated and the land should have been purchased for the same taxable value of property (NJOP) as surrounding buildings. The city administration purchased the land in 2014 for Rp 775.69 billion, while according to the BPK report the city could have bought the land for Rp 564.35 billion.
Ahok insisted that the administration purchased the land at the actual price as determined by the tax office directorate general of the Finance Ministry.
He also slammed the BPK for irrationality as it had suggested the administration wait until the right-to-build (HGB) permit of Sumber Waras expired in 2015 so that the city administration could occupy the land freely.
"All companies, buildings use HGB and HGU [land use title]. So if we just needed to wait until their permits expired and we reclaimed the land, we would be rich. Who taught you that? Do you read the law?" Ahok said to the investigators questioning him.
The KPK opened an investigation into the Sumber Waras land procurement in October 2015 under then KPK chairman Taufiequrrahman Ruki after receiving a report in August from an individual identified as Amir Hamzah.
Ahok's questioning in the Sumber Waras graft case came amid the controversial Jakarta Bay reclamation bribery case, which has seen his aide Sunny Tanuwidjaja banned from traveling overseas by the KPK. (rin)
