There was no instruction from the President during the Cabinet meeting to collect money from subordinates or staff to deal with the food crisis due to the pandemic and El Nino.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Special staff to the President for legal affairs, Dini Purwono, has denied a statement by former agriculture minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo (SYL) that funds were collected from ministry staff at President Joko Widodo's (Jokowi's) behest.

"There was no instruction from the President during the Cabinet meeting to collect money from subordinates or staff to deal with the food crisis due to the pandemic and El Nino," she clarified in a short message on Thursday.

Purwono said that every presidential instruction and the use of discretion by presidential aides to handle a problem must be interpreted and limited in keeping with the discretionary procedures regulated by the Government Administration Law, which must not exceed the authority of ministers/heads of institutions, and be reported to the President, as their superior.

"Every money collection or illegal levies carried out by state officials or state civil servants for personal benefit is a criminal act of corruption," she emphasized.

Earlier, during his corruption case trial, SYL said that the policies he pursued as minister of agriculture were based on the President's instructions in the wake of warnings of a food crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the El Nino phenomenon.

SYL argued that the money collected from his staff was intended for the benefit of the Indonesian people who were at risk of not meeting their food needs.

He also said that he felt wronged by the testimony of his subordinates at the Agriculture Ministry, who he believed had cornered him.

SYL has been charged with extortion and receiving gratuities totaling Rp44.5 billion (US$2.6 million) in alleged corruption cases at the Ministry of Agriculture during the period from 2020 to 2023.

Secretary general of the Ministry of Agriculture for the 2021–2023 period, Kasdi Subagyono, and the ministry's director of agricultural equipment and machinery for the 2023 period, Muhammad Hatta, are also defendants in the case.

Both of them allegedly coordinated the collection of money from echelon I officials and their staff, including to pay for SYL's personal needs.


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Translator: Yashinta Difa P, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Tia Mutiasari
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