3 hours ago
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November 27, 2024 | 09:58 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesian Minister of Agriculture Andi Amran Sulaiman has revoked 11 of his employees involved in illegal activities of distributing fake fertilizer. He conveyed this in a press conference held at his office today, Tuesday, November 26, 2024.
"Next, there are Ministry of Agriculture employees who process all these auctions. We apologize, we are suspending 11 people starting today. We have requested their dismissal letters to be issued, suspend 11 people," he said.
The process of dismissing the 11 employees has been carried out gradually since some time ago. "We have suspended them and it is also followed up by the General Inspectorate. If necessary, we will send them to law enforcement," he said.
Based on information from Amran Sulaiman, the 11 employees who have been dismissed previously held positions as directors, officials at level II and III, and staff who processed fertilizer procurement. "They are a unit in the Procurement team," he added.
Amran Sulaiman mentioned that about a month or two ago, he received reports regarding the presence of fake fertilizers circulating in the market. Subsequently, investigations and checks carried out proved that there were four private companies selling counterfeit fertilizers and 23 other companies selling fertilizers that did not meet the standards set by the Ministry of Agriculture.
As a result, the four companies proven guilty were immediately blacklisted and payments from the Ministry of Agriculture that were not yet complete were suspended. "Not fully paid. This payment is withheld, stopped, then prosecuted. Why? From the intention, it is already not good," he said.
Amran Sulaiman continued, "Even we ask the directorate staff, directors, when this company is blacklisted. Then, if they build a new company and the owner is the same, we blacklist it. They are not allowed in," he added.
Prior to that, the Ministry of Agriculture also conducted sample checks sent to several laboratories, including the IPB Soil Lab and the Food Instrument Standardization Agency (BSIP) laboratory. The lab results showed discrepancies in the test results for the fertilizers received by the Ministry of Agriculture with the distributed fertilizers.
"The samples we checked at the lab initially were correct, all were correct. But it turned out that what was sent to the farmers were not as per specifications, some even fake, not fertilizers. That was from the four companies just now," he said.
The checks carried out were also done with caution to avoid the creation of slander. Nevertheless, Amran Sulaiman continued, "The three laboratories we used all said that the four companies were distributing counterfeit fertilizers. Then, the rest were below standard."
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