Graft in KPU Jakarta: More corruption or just rumor?<\/p>\n
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
As long as no-one in the government is touched, then law
\nenforcers will bravely investigate a case. This is the message we
\nget from the fact that investigations into alleged corruption in
\nthe Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPU Jakarta) have been
\nextremely fast when compared to other investigations into similar
\ncases involving funds from the Jakarta city budget.<\/p>\n
Why? Because the Commission is an independent body, and during
\nthe elections many political parties were probably upset with the
\nbehavior of Commission executives. Therefore there is little
\nsympathy for them when they get sprung for allegedly stealing
\nstate money.<\/p>\n
In less than a month, the Jakarta Prosecutors's Office was
\nable to name three suspects, detain them, and confiscate assets
\nthat were allegedly purchased with the money that was stolen.<\/p>\n
Another surprising move was that prosecutors treated reports
\nfrom the City Council's Commission A on legal and administrative
\naffairs as strong evidence.<\/p>\n
The prosecutors also broke with their traditional way of
\ninvestigation in not asking for prior recommendation from the
\nCity Audit Agency (Bawasda).<\/p>\n
Bawasda, which is part of the Jakarta city bureaucracy, has
\nfrequently been strongly criticized for its poor performance in
\ndisclosing corruption involving high ranking officials of the
\ncity administration.<\/p>\n
Therefore, the decision of Jakarta prosecutors to pick up the
\ncorruption case without asking permission from the auditing
\nagency will hopefully set a precedent in the investigation of
\nother cases of embezzlement of funds from the city budget.<\/p>\n
If the Jakarta Prosecutors' Office did not take the initiative
\nin investigating the alleged graft in KPU Jakarta, then the audit
\nreport would have been ignored just like all the other ignored
\nreports.<\/p>\n
As an example, in 2003 the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) reported
\nalleged irregularities in the spending of funds in several
\nagencies under the city administration worth some Rp 830 billion
\n(US$85.13 million).<\/p>\n
Ignoring the BPK report, Bawasda said there was no corruption
\nin the agencies mentioned. Police questioned a number of
\nofficials in connection with the report, but later stopped the
\ninvestigation, citing lack of evidence.<\/p>\n
Another high profile corruption case involved several
\nofficials from the city administration and seven councillors, who
\nreceived \"double financed trips\" of their visits to South Africa,
\nJapan, and Australia in October, 2000.<\/p>\n
Apart from allegedly receiving travel allowances of between
\nUS$5,000 to $10,000 from the city-owned PT. Pembangunan Jaya
\nAncol, each person also received Rp 52 million in travel
\nallowances from the city budget.<\/p>\n
The case of alleged corruption in the KPU Jakarta was in fact
\nnot that different from many other corruption cases that have
\nbeen ignored.<\/p>\n
The disclosure of the alleged graft started from the curiosity
\nof several councillors about newspaper' reports of several fake
\nbills for renting houses in the Kepulauan Seribu regency, which
\nwere used as the election body's secretariat.<\/p>\n
Commission A followed up on the reports by summoning KPU
\nJakarta members and staff as well as relevant officials under the
\ncity administration to seek information about the expenditure of
\nRp 168.6 billion for organizing three elections in 2004.<\/p>\n
KPU Jakarta failed to give satisfactory explanations for a
\nnumber of allegations including mark-ups in procuring vests, flag
\npoles, and rent for houses in Kepulauan Seribu regency. They
\ncould also not explain why they did not pay Rp 4.2 billion in
\ntaxes.<\/p>\n
Currently, prosecutors have detained three suspects -- KPU
\nJakarta chairman Muhammad Taufik, KPU Jakarta member A Riza
\nPatria, and treasurer Neneng Euis Palupi.<\/p>\n
Investigations into the case are still far from finished. But
\nat least it raises some hope that other corruption cases will
\nalso receive equally harsh treatment from law enforcers.<\/p>\n
Many viewed the investigation as shock therapy in an effort to
\neradicate corruption in the capital, in the hope that it would
\nhave a domino effect of investigations into corruption in
\nnational institutions.<\/p>\n
The public still has to wait to see what further action the
\nprosecutors, police and the Corruption Eradication Commission
\n(KPK) will take to uncover other corruption cases in the city,
\nwhich actually could be resolved quite easily if the spirit of
\nlaw enforcers was high, as seemed to be the case with KPU
\nJakarta.<\/p>\n
There are still many indications that corruption, collusion
\nand nepotism (KKN) are still rampant in the tendering process for
\nprojects and procurement of goods and services in the city
\nadministration.<\/p>\n
First, many tenders for projects, goods and services were only
\nannounced in newspapers with low readership.<\/p>\n
Second, visitors to City Hall will notice a group of people
\ngathering on the left wing of the hall. Many of them are company
\nexecutives, seeking fortunes by 'facilitating' companies, which
\nwill be decided as winners in certain tenders.<\/p>\n
Their presence is to give the impression that the tender
\nprocess is complying with the rules. For that, a winning
\ncandidate needs six or seven front companies to take part in the
\ntender bidding process. The front companies, however, would be
\naware all along that they were not going to win the tender.<\/p>",
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