Corruption takes many forms in Indonesia. According to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), one of the ways that property development conglomerate Lippo Group greased the wheels of bureaucracy to help realize their US$20 billion Meikarta project was to bribe members of Bekasi’s Regional Representative Council (DPRD) with paid vacations to Thailand.
In October, the KPK arrested a number of high-ranking officials in Bekasi, the Jakarta satellite region where the aggressively marketed Meikarta development is being constructed, for their alleged involvement in graft related to licensing for the mega-project, including Bekasi Regent Neneng Hassanah. Several senior Lippo Group executives have also been charged.
Newly released information from the KPK reveal just how widespread and multifarious corruption related to the Meikarta may have been.
“More than 20 members of the Bekasi Regency DPRD have been identified as receiving funding for trips to Thailand,” KPK spokesperson Febri Diansyah said yesterday at the commission’s office in Jakarta yesterday as quoted by Tempo.
In addition to the DPRD members, Febri said similar illicit funds were given to the the council’s secretariat staff. He said the holidays to Thailand took place in 2018 and involved a travel agent that provided them with 3 day, 2 night packages that included visits to tourist attractions such as beaches.
Febri said that the KPK appreciated that many of the suspects and witnesses in the case had been cooperative during their investigation. He also noted that some had already willingly returned money to the state, including two DPRD members who gave back amounts of IDR9 million (US$635) to IDR11 million that they had been given for their trips to Thailand.
The KPK is still investigating the full extent of various DPRD members’ involvement in illicitly helping Lippo Group obtain licenses for Meikarta, according to Febri, adding that so far they had recovered IDR180 million from various DPRD members involved in the case.
The highest ranking official arrested in relation to the Meikarta case is Bekasi Regent Neneng Hasanah Yasin, who the KPK says has already returned IDR11 billion in bribes she was given.
Lippo Group had been aggressively marketing the Meikarta project as a “city of the future” and an alternative for those dissatisfied with living in Jakarta. But even before the KPK arrests, the project had been dogged by reports about stalled construction, slow sales and accusations of broken promises.
