Ina Parlina, Jakarta – The country's antigraft body has been named one of the most accountable state bodies in 2010, the year in which activists said it worked incredibly slow in the fight against endemic corruption.
According to an evaluation conducted by the Administrative Reforms Ministry, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), followed by the National Education Ministry and the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, were named the top three state institutions with the most "accountable" performances for 2010. Seventy-nine ministries and state institutions were included in the evaluation, according to a press statement released on Monday.
The commission, however, is still failing to impress antigraft activists, who accused it of being "too cautious" in combating corruption – an approach they say has hindered its performance.
"KPK has not been resourceful in using the 2001 Anti-Corruption Law. They were too cautious," Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) advocate Tama S. Langkun said Monday during a launching of an assessment on the KPK's 2010 performance. The watchdog called on the commission to be more sophisticated in prosecuting corrupt officials.
According to ICW, the KPK used articles on bribery 188 times in their prosecutions in 2010. In comparison, the commission used articles on embezzlement and misuse of state funds only 44 times during the same year. Articles on trickery and conflict of interest were never used, ICW added.
It also lamented the fact that the KPK frequently used an article on bribery stipulating that someone can be charged with bribery even if the commission had not yet found the players behind the payment of the bribe. "It is a challenge for KPK to find the bribe payer in cases such as the Bank Indonesia vote buying scandal," he said.
The KPK is still failing to name the bribe payers in a high-profile bribery case that has implicated at least 25 former and current legislators, even though it has recently sentenced four more individuals for their electoral support of Miranda S. Goeltom as central bank's senior deputy governor in 2004.
The commission was also lambasted for being slow in completing graft probes it had already begun. The ICW found at least three corruption cases in which the culprits had already been named suspects for years, but continue to remain free.
A corruption case centered on at least three former heads at the Riau Forestry Agency for illegally granting permits to use forests and land in Siak and Pelalawan regencies, Riau, between 2001 and 2006, has only put some perpetrators in jail, while the rest remain free.
Syuhada Tasman, who led the office from 2003-2004 and Burhanuddin Husein (2005-2006), have been suspects in the issuances of illegal permits over the course of three years, but as of now have never been arrested.
As of today, KPK has not yet arrested Siak regent Arwin, even after naming him a suspect in September 2009 for allegedly violating regulations in issuing permits for forest land usage in Riau between 2001 and 2003.
Another case implicated businessman Anggoro Widjojo, the brother of high-profile suspect Anggodo Widjojo, who is still missing after he was named a suspect in 2009 for allegedly bribing several high-ranking officials at the Forestry Ministry in order to win an integrated radio communication system tender in 2007. KPK officials were not available for comment on Monday.