... we will deal with the issue is by confronting our investigators with the BPK."Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has declared that it found no corruption in connection with the purchase of a 3.64-hectare plot of land at the Sumber Waras Hospital compound by the Jakarta government.
"Our investigators did not discover any violation of laws, and therefore, we would invite the State Audit Board (BPK) to meet our investigators with regard to its audit," KPK Chief Agus Rahardjo stated on the sidelines of a meeting with House Commission III here on Tuesday.
The case was reported to the KPK after the BPK produced the results of its audit on the financial report of the Jakarta government.
Rahardjo noted that in connection with the investigation into the case, the KPK had summoned Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama on April 12, 2016.
Rahardjo affirmed that the conclusion was made based on the results of the investigation conducted by the KPK investigators.
"If a case is already taken up for a judicial investigation, the KPK will not be able to drop it. This case is still being probed (and so we can drop it). It is the investigators who discovered it, and so, it did not come from the KPK leadership but from below," he emphasized.
Certainly, the finding was different from BPKs opinion according to which the results of its audit on the Jakarta governments 2014 financial report indicated financial losses reaching Rp191.3 billion as the Jakarta government had overpaid for the land.
"However, according to many experts, a price gap indeed existed, but it was not as much as that. Several experts also viewed that everywhere, an NJOP price (the selling price of a tax object) was considered a good price. In view of this, the only way we will deal with the issue is by confronting our investigators with the BPK," he explained.
The BPK, in its opinion, referred to the purchase price for the land given by PT Ciputra Karya Utama (CKU) to Sumber Waras Health Foundation at Rp564.3 billion in 2013. PT CKU later cancelled the purchase as the land could not be used for commercial purposes.
The BPK has also put forth a recommendation demanding tax payment worth over Rp3 billion for the land and building from the Sumber Waras Health Foundation from 1994 to 2014.
It has also recommended Governor Basuki to impose sanctions on his land purchasing team, which the BPK views as having been careless in checking the location of the land in terms of its value.
More than 33 people have been summoned for questioning in connection with the Sumber Waras case.
Governor Basuki said the Jakarta government had bought the land based on its location, which is on Jalan Kyai Tapa 1, Grogol in West Jakarta, at Rp20.7 million per square meter based on the NJOP in 2014.
The governor believed that the Jakarta government had paid a good price at only Rp744.6 billion in total, while based on the market price, it would have to had pay much more.
Basuki, who plans to participate in the Jakarta gubernatorial election in February next year, has so far been under attack over the issue raised by his critics, and so, a victory will certainly give him relief.
The governor has, so far, claimed that what he has done is right. He plans to use the land to build a cancer hospital.
(Reporting by Desca Lidya Natalia/Uu.H-YH/INE/KR-BSR/A014)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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