Involved in the Land Mafia, BPN Employees to be Fired

MYE

The Agrarian and Spatial Planning Minister and head of the National Land Agency or ATR/BPN Hadi Tjahjanto.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The Agrarian and Spatial Planning Minister and head of the National Land Agency or ATR/BPN Hadi Tjahjanto is committed to taking firm action against employees who are caught cooperating with the land mafia.

"I hope that there will be no more 'those who have a cold'. If there is a violation, I will not hesitate to remove him, process the law and fire him," Hadi said at a press conference with the chief of the Jakarta Police, Insp. Gen. Fadil Imran at the Jakarta Police Headquarters, South Jakarta, on Monday 18/7/2022).

Hadi also ordered the Inspectorate General of the ATR/BPN Ministry to closely monitor the system for handling land cases and the performance of BPN employees.

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Previously, the police investigated a land-mafia case involving 30 suspects. At least 13 of them included BPN employees in Jagakarsa, South Jakarta; Cilincing, North Jakarta; and Babelan, Bekasi. The BPN employees consisted of seven state-civil servants (ASN) and six non-permanent employees.

In the case involving 30 suspects, there were 12 victims. They are not only civilians, but also the government, which has land-tenure rights.

When he was the chair of the adjudication for Complete Systematic Land Registration (PTSL) at the South Jakarta BPN, he was suspected of issuing certificates with fake scripts and without going through the correct procedure.

Among the suspects from BPN employees, there are officials identified as PS and MB. PS is now the coordinator of substances for land arrangement of BPN at the North Jakarta administrative city. When he was the chair of the adjudication for Complete Systematic Land Registration (PTSL) at the South Jakarta BPN, he was suspected of issuing certificates with fake scripts and without going through the correct procedure.

MB, another BPN official, is suspected of being involved in a case in North Jakarta. He is alleged to have received hundreds of millions of rupiah from financiers to issue land certificates without proper procedures. In fact, the PTSL program should be free.

KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI (RZF)

A number of suspects in the land mafia syndicate case were released at a press conference in Jakarta, Wednesday (12/2/2020).

According to the director of General Criminal Investigation of the Jakarta Police, Comr. Hengki Haryadi, the PTSL program, which is aimed at helping residents use land rights to obtain ownership certificates, is one of the new targets of the land mafia. They no longer use the old mode, such as transferring ownership rights by falsifying land certificates secretly through the buying and selling process. The new mode that is now being revealed is that the land mafia takes advantage of loopholes when the certificate is not yet held by the land owner.

Furthermore, BPN employees are involved in the manufacture of forged measuring drawings or field maps, as well as in the issuance of certificates.

The modus operandi is that the land mafia cooperates with unscrupulous local government employees to look for land that has not been certified. After finding the target, the perpetrators work together to produce fake land-ownership documents as a comparison with the documents owned by the victims. Furthermore, BPN employees are involved in the manufacture of forged measuring drawings or field maps, as well as in the issuance of certificates.

Apart from that mode, there is also the expropriation of land rights without the knowledge of the victims. "We are still investigating this because many victims are not aware that their land has been taken over by the land mafia," said Hengki.

Concrete steps

Professor of the Faculty of Law at the University of Gadjah Mada, Nur Hasan Ismail, said that the public was waiting for concrete steps from the ATR/BPN Minister to take action against his subordinates who violate the law. "Professionalism and independence [morality] of BPN officers need to be improved and monitored," he said.

KOMPAS/DAHLIA IRAWATI

The chief of the Jakarta Police, Insp. Gen. Fadil Imran

The issue of the morality of human resources in the ATR/BPN environment, according to Nurhasan, has damaged all positive ministry programs to suppress agrarian and land conflicts. The programs include PTSL and the ongoing digitization of land certificates.

“PTSL has a standard mechanism, which must be systematic, careful and precise. Likewise with the digitization program, but it still requires the role of humans, which enables deviations, as long as the humans are not professional and independent," he said. (ERK)

(This article was translated by Hyginus Hardoyo)