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.