Jakarta. The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) has arrested Prasetyo Boeditjahjono, the former director general of railways, on charges of corruption related to an inter-provincial railway construction project in Sumatra.

Prosecutors have been investigating the case for the past year following significant technical issues and repeated delays in the railroad project, which was intended to connect North Sumatra and Aceh between 2017 and 2023.

According to Abdul Qohar, the AGO’s director of criminal investigation, the project incurred a cost of Rp 1.3 trillion ($82.4 million) to the state budget.

“Prasetyo will be detained for the next 20 days at the AGO’s detention facility in Salemba,” Abdul told Antara news agency on Sunday.

Prasetyo is accused of dividing the railway construction into 11 separate projects, which were contracted to eight companies without proper documentation and through fraudulent means.

The project suffered from a lack of feasibility studies, resulting in certain sections of the track sinking into soft ground and becoming unusable.

Additionally, Prasetyo allegedly accepted at least Rp 2.6 billion in kickbacks from contractors involved in the project.

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