KPK: Health Sector Corruption Risks Lives

JAKARTA - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said corruption in the health sector risks threatening the safety of patients. Prevention must be carried out immediately, including in the procurement of goods/services (PBJ) in the health sector.

This was conveyed by the Deputy Chairperson of the KPK, Ibnu Basuki Widodo, holding Anti-Corruption Technical Guidance for pharmaceutical and medical device business actors (alkes) with the Ministry of Health on Wednesday, September 17. The activity was attended by 150 participants and carried out at the Prof. Sujudi Building, South Jakarta.

"Poor quality products, quickly damaged medical devices, declining services, and even endangering patients to life. Therefore, business actors must dare to refuse bribes, gratuities, and conflicts of interest," Ibnu said in an official statement from the institution, Saturday, September 20.

The pharmaceutical industry and medical devices have a high vulnerability to corrupt practices, Ibnu said. Bribery, fraud in the tender process, manipulation of reports, and conflicts of interest can occur.

"This vulnerability makes it important to implement Supreme Court Regulation (Perma) No. 13 of 2016, which confirms that corporations can be punished if they benefit from criminal acts or neglect to prevent corruption," he said.

Ibnu also mentioned that the KPK is handling allegations of the construction of the East Kolaka Hospital involving the inactive East Kolaka Regent Abdul Azis and a number of parties, including the Ministry of Health and corporations. This familiar practice should no longer happen.

"Criminality of corruption is our common homework. Let's declare ourselves not to be corrupt and active in the eradication movement," he said.

In addition, the KPK conducted a study on the governance of medical devices in 2018. As a result, it found a number of weaknesses that were vulnerable to corruption, such as waste of medical devices in a number of hospitals because they did not comply with specifications, poor maintenance, and the lack of human resources that operated made the budget inefficient.

The KPK also noted that gratification reports at the Ministry of Health were still fluctuating. In 2022 there were 66 reports, 117 reports in 2023, and 129 reports in 2024.

Meanwhile, specifically for 2025, there were 113 reports throughout the first semester with the reported value of the object of gratification reaching Rp77.1 million, of which Rp27 million has been designated as state property.

On the other hand, the results of the 2024 Integrity Assessment Survey (SPI) of the Ministry of Health actually rose to 77.27 points from 72.36 points in 2023. Even so, the potential for corruption is still threatening in budget management, PBJ, and HR management.

Meanwhile, Deputy Health Minister Dante Saksono Harbuwono emphasized that the practice of corruption in the health sector is a betrayal of human rights. "As a government organization, we work with a system designed so that there is a cross-check, balance, and evaluation mechanism," he said on that occasion.

"With the increasingly rigid system, we hope that the corruption that has occurred at the Ministry of Health will not happen again."