Corruption Law Enforcement In 2024 Turns Out Not To Have A Deterrent Effect

JAKARTA Findings of Indonesia Corruption Watch or ICW conclude that law enforcement on corruption throughout 2024 has not provided a deterrent effect.

Corruption is still the biggest challenge faced by Indonesia to date. Efforts to eradicate corruption are still stagnant even though Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption (UU 31/1999) has even been 25 years old.

Stagnasi termbarang dari Indeks Persepsi Korupsi (IPK) yang dikeluarkan Transparency International. Pada 2004, IPK Indonesia menunjukkan skor 34. Ten tahun kemudian, skor Indonesia naik menjadi 37, meski sempat meraih skor 40 pada 2019.

The failure to achieve a score that has at least reached the world average has made eradicating corruption in Indonesia require a major evaluation, not only in the order of laws and regulations, but also law enforcement.

Efforts to eradicate corruption have not been able to ensnare high-class actors and have not succeeded in becoming an effective instrument to prevent repeats of similar practices.

Based on ICW data, in 2024 there were 1,768 corruption case decisions published by the Supreme Court (MA). However, this number only represents 49.04 percent of the total cases resolved by the Supreme Court throughout 2024. ICW assessed that law enforcement against corruption crimes throughout 2024 still shows an alarming trend.

Thousands of these decisions involved 1,869 defendants, which were dominated by 1,865 individual defendants and convicts. Meanwhile, from corporations there were only six defendants.

ICW legal staff member Erma Nuzulia Syifa said law enforcement officials do not yet have the same paradigm regarding the prosecution of corruption by legal entities.

ICW's findings also mention, in terms of sector categories, corruption cases in the utility sector are the highest with 322 decisions, followed by villages (310), government (282), banking (153), and education (129). This figure shows that regional corruption is still high, especially in the management of utilities and village funds.

While judging from the distribution of the region, North Sumatra is the province with the highest number of corruption decisions (148), followed by East Java (129) and South Sulawesi (123). The least decisions were found in West Papua and Yogyakarta, each with 17 decisions.

In addition, in terms of eradicating corruption, ICW highlighted the low prosecution of strategic actors, such as members of the legislature, regional heads, and officials of state-owned enterprises (BUMN).

Of the 1,869 defendants, only 110 of them came from these strategic positions, while most of the defendants came from the private sector (603), followed by local government employees (462), and village heads (204).

One of the factors for the low investigation of actors who have strategic positions should be suspected because of the Attorney General's Instruction No. 6 of 2023, one of which is to temporarily stop investigating people who want to participate in the 2024 general election contestation, "said Erma.

ICW also found that 70 defendants were acquitted and 20 defendants were released from all charges. In addition, additional penalties in the form of revocation of political rights were only imposed on 14 defendants.

In fact, ICW noted that there were at least 22 defendants who were regional heads or members of the legislature who were not sentenced to revocation of political rights. This condition is considered to show an inconsistency and potential selective slashing in the imposition of additional penalties.

Based on the results of ICW's analysis, the type of corruption is still dominated by corruption with state financial losses (1,601 defendants), followed by bribery (98) and extortion (28). The money laundering article is only applied to 25 defendants, including three cases that were suspended.

"The lack of money laundering articles implemented by law enforcement shows that there has been no extra effort to optimize the return of state losses," he said.

Throughout 2024, there were 70 acquittals and 20 acquittals, with details of three defendants having strategic positions such as BUMN and BUMD officials. Providing a deterrent effect for defendants who hold strategic positions is actually a mechanism so that corruption is expected not to repeat itself.

Unfortunately, additional penalties in the form of revocation of certain rights were only imposed on 14 defendants. Meanwhile, ICW noted that 22 defendants who served as regional heads or members of the legislature were not sentenced to revocation of political rights.

"This shows that there is still selective slashing in providing additional punishment," he said.

Returning state financial losses is one of the government's efforts to provide a sense of justice for residents affected by corruption. In 2024, ICW's total state financial losses will be calculated at IDR 330.9 trillion. But unfortunately, the recovery rate of state losses is still very low, namely 4.84 percent which consists of a total fine of IDR 316 billion and a total replacement money of IDR 16.58 trillion.

"Based on ICW's analysis, this was due to the lack of maximum application of Article 18 by the judge. Because, only 63.56 percent of the defendants were charged with replacement money from all defendants (or the equivalent of 1,158 defendants)," Erma continued.

According to ICW, this condition confirms the urgency of ratifying the Asset Confiscation Law to strengthen the recovery of state losses.

"With light penalties, minimal recovery, and low revocation of political rights, corruption law enforcement has not touched on the deterrent effect that should protect the public interest," Erma concluded.