Police unable to handle graft case<\/p>\n
Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Police managed to recover only Rp 139.7 billion out of Rp 8
\ntrillion (US$889 million) lost to corruption over the past three
\nyears, said a police officer on Friday.<\/p>\n
The National Police Detectives' chief, Comr. Gen. Suyitno
\nLandung, said police had finished investigating 233 out of 662
\ncases probed in the past three years, while the others were still
\nbeing investigated.<\/p>\n
Suyitno's statement confirmed the public perception that the
\npolice are incapable of eradicating rampant corruption in the
\ncountry.<\/p>\n
It also came just one day after Transparency International
\nIndonesia (TI Indonesia) issued the findings of an investigation
\nit conducted that suggest the police are one of the most corrupt
\ninstitutions in the country.<\/p>\n
Suyitno said the police were currently focusing on alleged mark-ups
\nby the Texas-based Karaha Bodas Company, price mark-up by Nangroe
\nAceh Darussalam Governor Abdullah Puteh in the purchase of
\nelectricity generators, and a graft case involving Bank
\nSwansaridno.<\/p>\n
The state is said to have lost Rp 30 billion as a result of
\nthe alleged price mark-ups by Puteh and Rp 60 billion in the Bank
\nSwansarindo case.<\/p>\n
It was not clear if the Account No. 502 case, which involves
\nRp 20.9 trillion of Bank Indonesia Liquidity Assistance (BLBI)
\nfunds and the Rp 900 billion National Logistics Agency (Bulog)
\ncase were among the cases the police had completed investigating.<\/p>\n
The police had initially named several former high-ranking
\nofficers of the now-defunct Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency
\n(IBRA) as suspects, but later denied ever naming anyone as a
\nsuspect.<\/p>\n
In the Bulog fiasco, the police detained seven suspects in
\n2003, but were forced to release them in 2004 due to a failure to
\nsubmit sufficient evidence to the prosecutor's office.<\/p>\n
Fraud squad director, Brig. Gen. Indarto, added that currently
\nthere were more than 115 legislative council members from 16
\nprovinces in Indonesia who were implicated in corruption cases.<\/p>\n
The 16 provinces were North Sumatra, South Sumatra, West
\nSumatra, South Sulawesi, Bali, Nangroe Aceh Darussalam, South
\nKalimantan, Central Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, Papua, Central
\nJava, East Nusa Tenggara, Jambi, Jakarta, Bengkulu and Riau.<\/p>\n
The TI Indonesia corruption barometer report also said on
\nThursday that the House of Representatives and political parties
\nwere the most corrupt institutions in the country, followed by
\nthe customs and excise office, the judiciary, the police and the
\ntax service.<\/p>\n
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who made corruption one of
\nhis main campaign issues during the presidential election, has
\nvowed to himself lead the country's fight against corruption.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Susilo officially launched a reinvigorated
\nnational anticorruption drive, and issued Presidential
\nInstruction No. 5\/2004 requiring, among other things, all state
\nofficials to report their wealth declarations to the Corruption
\nEradication Commission (KPK) as expeditiously as possible\/<\/p>",
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