Corruption Eradication Commission Enforcement Performance Drops In First Semester, ICW: Leaders Are Busy Getting Rid Of Employees

JAKARTA - Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) assesses that the performance of the Corruption Eradication Commission in the first semester of 2021 has fallen. However, this happened not because of the COVID-19 pandemic but because the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) leadership was busy with its own agenda, namely getting rid of employees through the National Insight Test Assessment (TWK).

"The decline in KPK's enforcement performance in the first semester of 2021 was not a factor in the COVID-19 pandemic, but because the KPK leadership was busy with the agenda of getting rid of 75 employees through the National Insight Test", ICW researcher Kurnia Ramadhana told reporters quoted Thursday, August 26.

Even so, ICW admitted that it was not surprised by the poor performance shown by the anti-corruption commission. Kurnia even said that the only success of the leadership, especially the Chairperson of the KPK, Firli Bahuri, was to tear up the institution in a short time.

"Firli Bahuri, has succeeded in suppressing institutions and breaking up KPK's actions in a very short time. Maybe that is the only success that the KPK can show at this time", he said.

Furthermore, he said the downward trend in performance has actually been seen from research conducted by ICW and Transparency International Indonesia (TII) published in December 2020.

Data shows that prosecutions have decreased drastically, for example, the number of investigations in 2019 reached 145 but in 2020 there were only 91 cases. In addition, in 2019 there were 153 prosecutions, while in 2020 only 75 cases went to court.

"It's not enough, the number of arrests in 2021 is also believed to be further away from people's expectations", said Kurnia.

Not only that, but the quality of handling corruption cases is also considered to have decreased. This was proven by the KPK when handling two cases that were in the spotlight, namely bribery for exporting lobster seeds at the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries and bribes for procuring COVID-19 social assistance (bansos).

"How come? The legal process carried out by the KPK looks like it wants to protect the perpetrators. This is illustrated by the low demands of the KPK, each of which is Edhy Prabowo 5 years in prison and Juliari P Batubara 11 years in prison", he said.

"It's not enough, even in the context of social assistance corruption, the KPK is alleged to want to protect certain parties. This is evidenced by the slow process of searching, summoning witnesses, and even omitting the names of certain parties from the indictment", added Kurnia.

By seeing this, ICW said that the public would actually easily predict the performance of the KPK in the future. "It is very likely that the KPK will avoid handling cases in which there is affiliation with certain political parties", said Kurnia.

As previously reported, the Deputy for Enforcement and Execution of the KPK Karyoto said that restrictions ranging from Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB) to those currently being implemented, namely the Implementation of Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM) affected their performance during Semester I 2021. In addition, the number of employees exposed to COVID-19 also caused the KPK to have to limit its movements.

"It is undeniable that the pandemic that was followed by the Large-Scale Social Restriction (PSBB) policy and a number of employees who were confirmed positive for COVID-19 required the KPK to limit its employees from carrying out their duties according to their respective fields. It will directly affect the performance of the KPK", Karyoto said in a press conference broadcast on the KPK RI YouTube, Tuesday, August 24.

In its release, the KPK stated that it had carried out 77 investigations, 35 investigations, 53 prosecutions, and 35 executions. In addition, from 35 cases that are under investigation and 32 people have been designated as suspects in corruption crimes.