Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has been on a roll over the past few months, arresting numerous regional heads in the country on suspicion of graft.
The KPK’s latest high-profile arrest was the recent capture of the Eddy Rumpoko, the mayor of Batu, East Java, who allegedly received a slice of his city’s furniture acquisition project fee in return for awarding the project’s tender to a particular private company. The percentage of the alleged cut that he received, according to the KPK, is pretty much the standard amount usually asked for by corrupt regional heads in Indonesia.
“From the arrests the KPK has carried out over the past few months… many of them (regional officials) take a 10% cut from the project,” said KPK Vice Chairman Laode Muhammad Syarif, as quoted by Kumparan yesterday.
“So 10% looks like the norm (taken) from the government’s budget allocation (for projects).”
In Eddy Rumpoko’s case, Laode said he received a 10% cut from a project costing the government IDR5.26 billion (US$397,000). The KPK has also arrested two others, one a government official and the other the tender winner identified as FHL.
“It is believed that the mayor received IDR200 million from a total cut of IDR500 million. The remainder IDR300 million was cut by FHL to pay for the mayor’s Toyota Alphard car,” Laode said.
The KPK has not revealed the charges against Eddy Rumpoko and the other suspects.
In Indonesia, politicians convicted of graft that cost the nation billions or even trillions in losses usually get relatively light punishments and are rarely jailed for over ten years (to put that in perspective, a teenager caught stealing sandals was once jailed for five years). However, occasionally, corruptors get the punishment they arguably deserve, like former Constitutional Court Head Judge Akil Mochtar, who was sentenced to life in prison for accepting a bribe.
Corruption is widespread in Indonesia, with the nation coming in at a very poor 90th place (1st being the least corrupt) out of 176 in global corruption watchdog Transparency International’s corruption index ranking in 2016.
