Police turn to businessmen for cash to support operations

“Sometimes we receive ‘gasoline funds’ from third parties. If we hunt criminals outside our territory, businesspeople usually pay for our hotels,” said a mid-ranking police officer stationed in Bekasi, West Java, recently.

His statement can be interpreted as a complaint about the small operational budget allocated for the police, and also as an apparent justification for breaking the law.

Emerson Yuntho of the Indonesia Corruption Watch said he believed the police always voiced their complaints about their lack of funding so that people would “understand” why they took “donations” from third parties.

“They might actually be enjoying the measly budget, because it justifies their corrupt practices. Who knows?” he said.

The police’s operational budget for this year is set at Rp 27 trillion (US$2.9 billion), around 70 percent of which will pay salaries.

However, former chief detective Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji said the allocated budget would actually be sufficient to cover all daily operations if it were managed properly.

He said the police’s decision to seek “donations” from businessmen was partly aimed at enriching their generals, although some of that money would be used to renovate police stations.

It has become public knowledge that many police stations in Jakarta have been fitted with air conditioners, televisions and audio systems.

Terrorist crackdowns in several cities have even been funded by a noted tycoon, who will later receive special treatment from the police - they will guard the interests of his businesses and help drive out his competitors, according to a police general.

The recent revelation of suspicious bank accounts owned by several police generals may indicate that corruption in the police is no longer driven by hunger, but rather by greed. Generals with a take-home pay of around Rp 15 million per month have been found to have up to Rp 95 billion each in their bank accounts.

“If their morality is bad, they will stay corrupt no matter how much the government increases their budget,” Emerson said.

Dozens of graft cases related to big companies currently being handled by the police have been dropped without clear explanation.

In October 2008, the police began an investigation into a graft case centering on the purchase of Zatapi crude oil involving state oil and gas company PT Pertamina and Singapore-based oil importer PT Gold Manor International.

The police named five suspects in the case but the investigation was later dropped after a letter was
issued by chairman of State Development Finance Comptroller Widi Widayadi, a retired police general.

The letter, addressed to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, insisted the police stop the case to prevent it from developing into a “political issue”.

In mid last year, the police dropped an alleged fraud case revolving around the bankruptcy of Amsterdam-based Indover Bank, which is owned entirely by the Indonesian central bank.

It was not until the visit of Susno Duadji to Amsterdam and a leisure trip to Italy with several central bank top officials that the case was eventually dropped. Susno denied an allegation he had accepted gifts in exchange for dropping the case.

Several NGOs have also accused the police of committing gross human rights violations in their attempts to secure the interests of business groups.

The head of regional empowerment at the Indonesian Environmental Forum, Erwin Usman, cited an example of a clash between hundreds of Mobile Brigade officers and oil palm farmers in Kuantan Senggigi, Riau, on June 8.

Yusniar, a 45-year-old mother and oil palm farmer, was shot dead by the police. The incident took place as hundreds of farmers staged a protest over allegations that PT TBS, an oil-palm plantation operator, had broken an agreement on a production sharing scheme.

“The series of human rights abuses allegedly committed by the police cannot be separated from their receiving funds from companies,” Erwin said.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang said all allegations of violations committed by the police were probably aimed at individual officers, not the institution.

“I understand that people tend to focus only on the bad side. But please also appreciate our performance in combating terrorism. Many police officers have been killed during the hunt for terrorist suspects,” he said.