REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has thoroughly probed Youth and Sports Minister Imam Nahrawi's role in approving the Indonesian National Sports Committee (KONI)'s proposal for government grants in 2018. Nahrawi met a summons from the KPK on Thursday as a witness in a bribery case on the disbursement of government grant to the KONI.

"(In questioning) the Youth and Sports minister as a witness, we thoroughly probed several things, ranging from the extent to which he knows a series of events, the flow and process of filing the proposal, to the process of approving the proposal," KPK spokesman Febri Diansyah said here on Thursday.

"In the context of approving the proposal, we investigated not only thoroughly one proposal but also his role. Did he directly approve the proposal or delegate a mandate to his deputy or other subordinate to do so?," he remarked.

During the questioning, the KPK also asked Nahrawi to clarify several pieces of evidence it seized while searching his office and the KONI office.

"For the time being, our investigators have probed several preliminary points. Of course, we feel it necessary to conduct other investigations including questioning witnesses in the case," he noted.

The KPK alleged that there had been communication and even deals before the proposal was filed.

"So the proposal is nothing more than formality which, from the beginning, we call a trick to file a proposal for grants until the grants were disbursed to the KONI," he added.

The anti-graft body has named five suspects in the bribery case linked to the disbursement of government fund to KONI through the Youth and Sports Ministry. KONI secretary general and general treasurer are accused of bribing officials of the Youth and Sports Ministry and three officials of the ministry, including the deputy IV, accused of receiving bribes amounting to at least Rp318 million.

Earlier, the ministry's deputy IV had also received a Fortuner jeep in April 2018 and Rp300 million in cash from the KONI official in June 2018 and a Samsung Galaxy Note 9 mobile phone. The government grant to KONI amounted to Rp17.9 billion.

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