The former head of an Indonesian government agency, responsible for the rollout of President Prabowo Subianto’s enormous free school meals program has been arrested by the Attorney General’s office, following an investigation into alleged corruption.
The arrest of Dadan Hindayana comes a day after he was sacked as head of the National Nutrition Agency, or BGN.
Dadan Hindayana, along with two other officials from the agency, were led out of the Attorney General’s department offices on Wednesday night in handcuffs and into a waiting police van.
Dadan Hindayana, the former head of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN). (Reuters: Willy Kurniawan)
A press conference by the Attorney General’s office is expected to begin shortly.
Investigators from the office spent the day raiding BGN’s headquarters in Jakarta.
The Free Nutritious Meals program, known locally as MBG, was a key election promise of President Prabowo, helping him storm to power in 2024.
The program, which was budgeted to cost about $30 billion this year, has courted controversy, with one education monitor estimating tens of thousands of children had gotten sick from food poisoning.
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