State loses Rp 22 trillion to corruptors in 2 years
State loses Rp 22 trillion to corruptors in 2 years
Abdul Khalik and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta
The state has lost some Rp 22 trillion (US$2.35 billion) in 1,198
corruption cases investigated from January 2002 to April 2004,
the Attorney General's Office says.
Office spokesman Kemas Yahya Rahman said on Thursday that his
office was able to recover only Rp 1.2 billion of the amount as
most of the assets had been used. In some cases prosecutors were
still waiting for the convicts to repay, he said.
Kemas said prosecutors across the country investigated 434
corruption cases in 2002, 584 in 2003 and 180 cases from January
to April 2004.
The Berlin-based Transparency International has placed
Indonesia among the world's most corrupt nations in the past few
years.
Kemas claimed that most corruption cases had been brought to
court while several others had already been completed.
"The cases involve government officials, businesspeople, and
councillors in Jakarta and other provinces, regencies and cities
throughout the country," he said.
He added that the crimes committed ranged from misuse and
embezzlement of state funds, malfeasance in private companies,
bribery and money politics, as well as collusion between
government officials and businessperson in project markups.
According to data from the office, the number of cases
prosecuted rose by 20 percent to 180 cases in the first four
months of 2004 compared to the same period in 2003. The number of
cases prosecuted in 2003 were 584, up from only 434 cases in
2002.
Kemas said that his office managed to recover only Rp 1.2
billion because the convicts and the suspects had spent most of
the assets or transferred ownership to someone else to prevent
reclamation by the court.
"We expect to increase the recovery rate because we are
waiting for the repayment from several convicted corruptors. We
are also waiting for the court's decision as to whether we can
claim several assets from other convicts or not," he said without
giving details on the potential amount.
The report seems to justify the ranking of Indonesia by
Transparency International as the sixth most corrupt country in
the world in 2003.
Indonesia has been shaken by a series of corruption cases
involving hundreds of councillors in the last two months. In a
spectacular case of collective corruption involving almost the
entire legislative body, the Padang District Court in West
Sumatra sentenced 43 of 55 provincial councillors to prison.
Meanwhile, President Megawati Soekarnoputri defended her
administration's track record on corruption eradication by
underlining that it was not the President's responsibility to
guarantee a fair and transparent judicial system.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Attorney General's
Office national meeting on Thursday, Megawati pointed out that in
the end the judicial system is the responsibility of the Supreme
Court.
"It is understandable to say that the President has a
responsibility to fulfill people's sense of justice, but there is
a separation between the judiciary and executive branches,"
Megawati said.
Both the police and the Attorney General's Office are directly
under the President and their top officials are members of her
the Cabinet.
She further said that the office had made efforts to settle
more corruption cases in the past three years than ever before.
"I expect that the prosecutor's office will be more
transparent and inform the public through the media of these
cases," the President said.
At the opening ceremony Attorney General M.A. Rachman also
defended his track record, saying that he had made maximum
efforts to fulfill the public's demand to eradicate corruption.
"We need to find a better concept and concrete measures to
accommodate the people's demand to deal with corruption cases,"
he said.
He further expressed his readiness to be held accountable
should people question his performance in fighting corruption.