Ina Parlina, Jakarta – The Judicial Mafia Taskforce is trying to identify patterns in the widespread corruption in the land management sector.
Meanwhile, an agrarian law expert claims the usual suspects were not only land agency officials but also officials from ministries, regional administrations, the legislature, military and legal institutions.
On Friday the taskforce announced that 22 percent of the 4,301 reports they received from the public since the taskforce was formed in December 2009 were related to the land sector, saying this indicated a major problem in the country's land management system, which is overseen by the National Land Agency (BPN). The taskforce called on the government to reform the land management system.
"We are studying those reports, looking for a pattern," taskforce member and chairman of the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) Yunus Husein told The Jakarta Post on Saturday at a taskforce meeting in Puncak, Bogor, West Java, to follow up the reports.
Yunus said his office would work with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) to tackle the issue.
KPK deputy chairman M. Jasin said his office had found similar indications of systemic graft within the land sector body since 2005.
"In 2005, the KPK assessed the BPN system and found many loopholes. We advised them to overhaul some parts of their system, including reforming procedures to license land and general administration," Jasin told the Post. "We warned them to stop all forms of bribery or illegal fees." In 2009, KPK made an impromptu visit to five local BPN offices in Jakarta and encountered the same problems, Jasin said.
He said that each year since 2007 the BPN had scored below the KPK's standard of integrity in its Public Sector Integrity Survey. The survey evaluates efforts to eradicate and prevent corruption in the country.
Rapid Agrarian Conflict Appraisal (RACA) director Nur Amalia claimed the land sector was vulnerable to corruption, saying "it has too many loopholes".
"It's an open secret. Everyone knows the land sector is prone to corruption with many actors involved," Nur told the Post.
She said officials from the BPN, ministries, regional administrations, lawmakers and the military were implicated. Those in the legal system were involved as well, she added.
"The BPN controls the licensing process for the general use of land. Don't forget that people need licenses from the Forestry Ministry and its local offices to use forest lands for mining or plantation purposes. They also need the consent of local administrators or even legislators," she said.
In early 2009, Al Amin Nasution, then a legislator at the House of Representatives' Commission IV overseeing forestry, agriculture and fisheries, was sentenced to eight years in prison for accepting bribes to facilitate the approval of a forest conversion on Bintan Island in Riau. The Supreme Court later reduced his sentence to six years.
The bribe payer, Bintan regency administration secretary Azirwan, was sentenced to 2 years and six months in prison.
In conflict-ridden areas such as Papua, Nur added, companies even used the military to facilitate business dealings.
"Fabrication of land licenses often occurs as well. Some plots of land may even have two licenses," she added.
In 2007, the KPK arrested the former head of the Surabaya Land Agency, Mohammad Khudlori, for extorting a client. He was found guilty and sentenced to 15 month in prison by the Surabaya District Court.
"There are also many middlemen in courts helping certain parties win land dispute cases. These middlemen are officials at the courts, lawyers, prosecutors and judges, as well as local leaders such as subdistrict heads," she said.