The latest high profile arrest by Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is that of Taufik Kurniawan, a deputy speaker in the House of Representatives (DPR), who has been named a suspect in a case involving the corruption of state funds.
According to the KPK, Taufik is suspected of receiving a bribe or a promised bribe relating to Special Allocation Funds (DAK) earmarked for Kebumen district in Central Java as part of a deal with Kebumen Regent M Yahya Fuad.
“At that time there was a planned allocation of DAK funds worth IDR100 billion (US$6.5 million). It is suspected that the ‘fee’ for the management of the DAK budget was 5 percent of the total budget,” KPK Deputy Chairman Basaria Panjaitan said during a press conference at the anti-corruption agency’s headquarters in Jakarta yesterday as quoted by Kompas.
According to Basaria, in the ratified version of the 2016 State Budget, Kebumen received an additional DAK allocation of IDR93.37 billion. Out of that, Taufik is suspected of receiving IDR3.65 billion from Yahya (who was sentenced to 4 years in relation to the DAK case earlier this month).
Taufik, a member of the National Mandate Party (PAN), is in charge of House Commission XI, which deals with economic issues, as well as the House Budget Committee (Banggar) which handles issues including funding allocations to regional governments.
The arrest was not totally unexpected as Immigration had been ordered to not allow Taufik to leave the country by the KPK on October 26.