Prabowo's Promise To Clean SOEs I Hope It's Not Omon-Omon

JAKARTA The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) supports President Prabowo Subianto's move to eradicate corruption in State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN), most of whose commissioners are filled by Gerindra Party cadres.

Presiden Prabowo Subianto berjanji bakal melakukan-bersih BUMN dan mengejar oknum internal yang mengambil keuntungan dari sana. Kepala Negara juga bakal mengirim Kejaksaan Agung dan KPK untuk bersih-bersih tersebut.

According to Prabowo, all state assets managed by SOEs if collected are worth 1,000 billion US dollars or equivalent to Rp. 16,679 trillion.

"It turned out that many of us were surprised that we did not expect that we would collect all state assets worth more than 1,000 billion dollars (US)," Prabowo said in his speech at the peak of the National Conference (Munas) VI of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) at the Sultan Hotel, Jakarta, Monday (29/9/2025).

However, Prabowo revealed that many bureaucrats are good at hiding these assets. Not even a few who take personal advantage even though the company is losing money.

With the cleaning he discussed, it is hoped that state revenue from the BUMN sector will increase, as well as there will be no deficit in the State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN).

But the question is, can the KPK supervise and deal with corruption in SOEs?

In Law Number 1 of 2025 concerning the Third Amendment to Law No. 19/2003 concerning SOEs there is a provision that members of the board of directors, board of commissioners, supervisory board of SOEs, as well as organs, and employees of new entities such as BPI Danantara, are not "state administrators". In fact, the organizer is the main domain of the KPK's authority to supervise and take action against corruption based on Law No. 9/2019 on the KPK.

The new SOE Law has provoked public debates and polemics for the prosecution of criminal acts, especially corruption, in the country, considering that one of the sources of state-owned capital comes from state capital participation (PMN), which means using public money.

During 2005-2021, for example, PMN for SOEs accumulated up to IDR 369.17 trillion. This value consists of IDR 350.19 trillion in the form of fresh funds and IDR 18.98 trillion in the form of PMN.

The Ministry of Finance reminded that PMN does not just disburse funds, but is the beginning of an accountable and accountable performance.

But the hands faced to maintain the accountability of SOEs are not simple. Corruption cases often occur in the board of directors and commissioners of SOEs, which causes state losses of up to trillions of rupiah.

An example is the case of the procurement of a natural gas (LNG) procurement which involved the former President Director of PT Pertamina Karen Agustiawan which caused the state to lose up to IDR 1.890 trillion.

In addition, there is also a bribe for the procurement of Garuda Indonesia aircraft involving the President Director of Garuda Indonesia Emirsyah Satar. In this case, the state suffered a loss of around Rp9.37 trillion.

A little back, the Attorney General's Office (AGO) is also investigating cases of alleged corruption and money laundering at PT Asuransi Jiwasraya in 2008-2018 which cost the state up to Rp. 16.81 trillion.

In 2021, Gadjah Mada University Anti-Corruption Studies Center researcher Zaenur Rohman said that the BUMN culture in general has not changed much, which is still often colored by corruption. Moreover, he still sees the surveillance system as weak.

The existence of practical political interests in BUMN as a result of the placement of politicians for the position of commissioner or director of BUMN is said to be one of the causes of the proliferation of corruption in this agency. In addition, conflicts of interest that allow to occur are at risk that corruption will not disappear from BUMN.

They do not necessarily have competence, while they may have certain interests, such as looking for projects or asking for facilities from SOEs. On the other hand, when the highest leadership of SOEs has a will, there is no supervision or correction from either the commissioner or its subordinates," said Zaenur.

Zaenur's statement at that time was still relevant to the current situation. Transparency International Indonesia (TII) research on 59 parent SOEs and 60 subsidiaries, found that 165 of the total 562 commissioner positions in BUMN were filled by politicians. And, almost half of them are set as Gerindra Party cadres.

This confirms that the filling of BUMN positions is still thick with the paronase scheme in exchange for political support.

"Of the 165 politicians who took the chair of commissioners, we mapped it further. A total of 104 people are party cadres, while 61 others are political volunteers," said TII researcher Asri Widayati.

Of the 104 commissioners who are party cadres, the Gerinda Party's affiliates are the most dominant with a portion of 48.6 percent. This figure is far above other parties, such as the Democratic Party (9.2 percent), and the Golkar Party (8.3 percent). Meanwhile, the PDI-P (PSIP), the National Mandate Party (PAN), and the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) recorded 5.5 percent respectively.

Gerindra is not only part of the coalition of political parties supporting the government, but also led directly by Prabowo.

Therefore, when Prabowo admitted that he was furious to see the behavior of the SOE commissioners who received bonuses in the midst of state-owned losses, the public tightened their foreheads, including Asri herself.

"Does he dare to pursue the politicians who also occupy this commissioner? Because he (the president) also knows that SOEs are losing money, it turns out that the chaires of commissioners from Gerindra themselves are filling a lot," he said.