ICW Does Not Need To Reactivate The Corruption Hunting Team

Illustration (Sajinka2 / Pixabay)

JAKARTA - The discourse of the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menko Polhukam) Mahfud MD to reactivate the corruptor hunting team is deemed unnecessary.

ICW researcher Wana Alamsyah assessed that this team did not need to be reactivated because of the 16 fugitive targets that were caught only 4 people. In addition, the government has never published an evaluation of this team.

"The corruptor hunting team was basically formed by the government in 2002. ICW data shows that after being formed 8 years, this team only succeeded in capturing 4 out of 16 target arrests," said Wana in a written statement, Friday, July 10.

He said the government did not need to activate a new team to deal with fugitive corruptors. Because, it has the potential to overlap with existing law enforcement officers. According to him, it is better to strengthen law enforcement than to form this team. Because, from ICW data from 1996 to 2018, there are 40 fugitives for corruption who have not been caught by law enforcement.

In addition, he assessed that a non-formal approach or cooperation between the government and law enforcement between countries must be carried out by Indonesia. The aim is to speed up the process of catching fugitives hiding in other countries. This is because extradition treaties are not the only way to catch fugitives in other countries.

"Do not let the current pandemic conditions be counterproductive to create a new task force," he said.

Previously, Menkopolhukam Mahfud MD said that he would reactivate the corruptor hunting team to arrest the convicted person in the Bank Bali case, Djoko Sugiarto Tjandra, who is still at large. This team, he said, would consist of the leadership of the AGO and Kemenkumham under the coordination of the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs.

He conveyed this after meeting representatives of the Presidential Staff Office, Police, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Law and Human Rights, and the Attorney General's Office in his office on Wednesday, July 8 yesterday.

The existence of this team is expected to be a solution to arrest Djoko Tjandra and other fugitives. "Maybe in the not too distant future the corruptor hunting team will bring in people and in time will hunt down Djoko Tjandra," Mahfud said at the time.

To revive this team, the government will later extend the legal rules governing it. At the time of its formation, this team was regulated through a Presidential Instruction (Inpres). "But then this presidential instruction was valid for one year and has not been extended yet. We will try to extend it," he said.

This corruptor hunting team was formed in the era of the 6th President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY). At that time the team consisted of people from the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, the Police, the Attorney General's Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the PPATK.

There are a number of high profile fugitives who were arrested. One of them is the former Director of Bank Sertivia David Nusa Wijaya, who is a suspect in the Bank Indonesia Liquidity Assistance (BLBI) corruption case with a value of IDR 1.3 trillion.