Attorney General Affirms Commitment To Guard SOE Cleaning Program

Attorney General Sanitiar Burhanuddin in the 43rd Anniversary of the Faculty of Law, Jenderal Sudirman University in Purwokerto, emphasized the AGO's commitment to oversee the BUMN cleaning program.

"I reiterate and reaffirm the commitment of the Indonesian Attorney General's Office to participate in overseeing the BUMN cleaning program, so that modern, reliable SOEs can be realized as the backbone of national development to welcome Indonesia Gold 2045," said Burhanuddin as quoted by ANTARA, Thursday, May 16.

This commitment was conveyed by Burhanuddin when appearing as a keynote speaker at a national seminar entitled "Optimizing Synergy at the Indonesian Prosecutor's Office and the Ministry of SOEs for Law Enforcement Interests in Saving BUMN Assets".

The Attorney General said that BUMN is one of the perpetrators of economic activities in the national economy based on economic democracy which has an important role in organizing the national economy in order to realize the welfare of the community as mandated by the 1945 Constitution.

SOEs, he said, play a double role that is mutually bound and inseparable, namely BUMN as an extension of the government's hand in the people's economy which must be able to provide services to the community as well as a business entity tasked with profiting.

In addition, SOEs also have a strategic role as implementers of public services, balancing large private forces, and helping to develop small/operational businesses.

"BUMN is also a significant source of state revenue in the form of various types of taxes, dividends, and privateization results," he said.

Talking about law enforcement and BUMN, Burhanuddin revealed that the potential for criminal acts that arise is corruption.

The main element that determines whether or not corruption occurs is the existence of elements of state losses. This element is one of the main keys to the success of the confiscation and return of assets obtained by corruption in Indonesia, especially in law enforcement carried out by the Prosecutor's Office.

According to him, state losses within the scope of SOEs are related to assets or assets of SOEs, until now there is still debate over this matter.

"On the one hand, there are those who see it as a separated wealth. On the other hand, it is the wealth of the state," he said.

Then, in handling corruption crimes involving SOEs, Burhanudein said it was necessary to do it with full caution, especially in determining the financial losses of SOEs and BUMN subsidiaries which are part of state financial losses in criminal acts of corruption.

According to him, the losses suffered by SOEs should not always be interpreted as part of a criminal act of corruption that is detrimental to state finances.

Meanwhile, regarding state assets related to the authority of the Prosecutor's Office, this is stated in Article 30A of Law Number 11 of 2021 concerning the Attorney General's Office of the Republic of Indonesia which states "In asset recovery, the Attorney General's Office has the authority to carry out tracing, confiscation, and return assets acquired by criminal acts and other assets to the state, victims, or those who are entitled".

"Optimizing asset recovery is a strategic effort by the Prosecutor's Office to save and recover state losses," he said.

Efforts to recover state losses that occur because law enforcement is not merely an implementer of the law, but must fulfill the legal objectives themselves, namely justice, benefit, and legal certainty.

In order to rescue and recover state losses, the Prosecutor's Office uses criminal and civil legal instruments.

The use of criminal law instruments through the confiscation process, confiscation, imposition of fines, and/or criminal additional replacement money.

Meanwhile, civil law instruments through civil lawsuits by the State Attorney as regulated in Articles 32, 33, and 34 of Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption, as well as Article 38C of Law Number 20 of 2001 concerning Amendments to Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption.

To support the implementation of the Prosecutor's authority in asset recovery mandated by Article 30A of Law Number 11 of 2021 concerning the Attorney General's Office of the Republic of Indonesia, the Asset Recovery Center has been raised to become the Asset Recovery Agency.

"The Asset Recovery Agency has a strategic role in asset recovery," he said.

The role of the strategy, he said, was because it was to maintain the economic value of the assets so as not to experience a significant decrease when returned to fulfill state losses, victims, and other entitled parties.

"However, through the establishment of the Asset Recovery Agency, the responsibility of the Prosecutor's Office is getting bigger, because it is required to become a central authority or actor in recovering and confiscation of assets in Indonesia," said Burhanuddin.

Regarding SOEs and state assets, continued Burhanudein, the Attorney General's Office is currently handling cases of alleged corruption in tin commodity trading in the Mining Business Permit (IUP) area of PT TIMAH, Tbk from 2015 to 2022 with state losses estimated at trillions of rupiah.

The SOE cleaning program initiated by the Minister of SOEs is a form of support from the Prosecutor's Office in improving SOE governance.

This support is not only in fixing SOEs in terms of business, but also in the legal aspect, both through preventive and repressive steps which are part of the transformation of SOEs.

"We really support this SOE cleaning program, to avoid and overcome the impact offraud which has resulted in criminal acts of corruption within the scope of SOEs because it will have a very impact on the failure to achieve national development goals," said Burhanuddin.

Until now, the SOE cleaning program has been carried out optimally and has succeeded in uncovering large cases that are detrimental to state finances, in this case related to state assets or assets in SOEs, namely Jiwasraya which is valued at Rp. 16.8 trillion, Garuda Rp. 8.8 trillion, Waskita Rp. 2.5 trillion, ASABRi Rp. 22.8 trillion and there are still several more cases being handled.

"We consider the disclosure of cases in BUMN by the AGO as concrete evidence of the government's seriousness in fixing state-owned companies to return to their original goals, namely to provide welfare to the community," said Burhanuddin.

The results of the disclosure of jumbo corruption cases with the prosecutor's office also have an impact not only on SOEs whose assets we have saved. But also on the Prosecutor's Office which now gains trust as the most trusted law enforcement agency by the public.