Import Affairs Involve Many Parties, Investigation of Customs Cases is Not Stopped at Blueray

JAKARTA - The alleged bribery and gratification of imports that dragged Blueray Cargo officials and a number of officials from the Directorate General of Customs and Excise (DJBC) are considered not to have fully revealed the network of influence in the national import governance.

Intelligence Counter Analysis Specialist R. Gautama Wiranegara said the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) had only targeted the relationship between business actors and individuals in the Customs environment. In fact, a number of facts that emerged at the trial indicated that there was a link with other institutions that had a role in the import chain.

"The issue of imports is not a single system. This involves many institutions, ranging from licensing, supervision, inspection, to the distribution of goods. Therefore, if there is a suspicion of conditioning the system, it is logically impossible to involve only one node," said Gautama through a written statement, Monday, June 22.

Gautama explained various facts of the trial of the top management of Blueray Cargo should be the gateway for investigators to test the entire chain of decision-making related to import activities.

"If the facts have emerged in the trial, then what the public is waiting for is how far the deepening will be carried out. Whether it will only stop as a court statement or develop into a wider investigation," he said.

According to Gautama, the public will not mind if the new investigators have sufficient evidence against certain parties. However, the facts that have been revealed in the trial should not be allowed to hang without explanation regarding the direction of its development.

According to Gautama, this condition in the perspective of counterintelligence is known as partial network capture, which is when the authorities manage to uncover a part of the network node but have not mapped the entire structure that works behind it.

"What was uncovered was only part of the network. That does not mean that the investigators failed, but it shows that there is still a lot of work ahead," he said.

He reminded that the national import system involves many institutions with different authorities, ranging from commodity licensing, goods supervision, technical inspections, issuance of recommendations to customs services at ports.

Therefore, according to Gautama, the investigation is not enough to focus on one institution or one group of perpetrators if there is indeed an allegation of conditioning practices in the import chain.

"The strategic question is no longer who receives the envelope. The question is who has the ability to influence decisions in the national import chain and who benefits the most from the system," he said.

Gautama assessed that the Blue Ray case could be an important momentum to improve national import governance if all the networks of influence that emerged in the trial could be mapped in full.

"If this case only stops at a few perpetrators who have been seen, then all that is obtained is the prosecution of the case. But if the entire chain of eyes is successfully mapped, then what is obtained is a system improvement," he said.

"Because experience shows that the center of the network is often not in the most visible node. In fact, the biggest challenge for investigators is to find the parts that are not visible on the surface," concluded Gautama.