Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairman for Prevention Mochammad Jasin said Monday that many corruption cases occurring at the local level were driven by debts to fund political campaigns during regional elections, popularly known as Pilkada.

“The main problem in our local political system is that direct regional elections are prone to practices of money politics,” Jasin told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Regional head hopefuls reportedly dig extra deep into their pockets in order to win elections, he said.

Cash-strapped politicians have to borrow a large amount of money to pay for campaign expenses.    

“These regional heads’ incomes are around Rp 6 million [US$672] a month. How can they pay their debts of, say around Rp 50 million, for political campaigns?” he added.

Campaign debts are proving to be a big a burden on politicians. On June 4, Sutoto Agus Pratomo, husband of Dasih Ardianti who lost in the 2010 deputy mayor election in Semarang, Central Java, hung himself in his office.

Corruption cases involving regional heads have been on the rise over the past five years. Data obtained from the KPK shows that the commission has settled 193 corruption cases, including those at the local level, between 2004 and early 2010. Most violations that have been revealed are related to the procurement of goods and service procedures with 86 cases and bribery at 56 cases.

The figure shows that 40.93 percent of the total number of cases occurred at the local level at 79 cases. From this figure, most violations occurred in West Java with 17 cases, followed by East Kalimantan with 11 cases, Jakarta with 10 cases and the Riau and Riau Islands combination having 10 cases.

The commission has sentenced eight governors and 20 mayors or regents between 2004 and early 2010, from a total of 242 corrupt officials. “There are also many other local administration officials involved in graft,” Jasin said.

JP/Irma The latest local administration head convicted for graft is Boven Digoel regent Yusak Yaluwo, who was sentenced to four years and six months in prison for graft in the procurement of a tanker ship and misappropriation of special autonomy funds for Papua province between 2005 and 2007, causing up to Rp 66.7 billion ($7.4 million) in state losses.

Yusak, in his defense plea, admitted that he had used regional funds to give cash aid to his prospective constituents without complying with procedures.

Jasin said the most recurring method of corruption at the local level was markups of procurements for goods and services, adding that many local government officials created fictitious expenditures and projects to benefit themselves. These are committed by governors, mayors, regents and their deputies, including their officials, he said.

Other corruption forms included manipulating procurement procedures and misappropriating regional funds with the most common practice as using state funds for private matters such as for family holidays.

More forms involve manipulation of local funds disbursement procedures, manipulation of forestry and mining concession licensing, which is rampant in Sumatra and Kalimantan, and violations of the gratification procedure usually involving local banks.  

The 2010 Public Sector Integrity Survey showed that the national integrity index was down to 5.42 this year from 6.5 last year. The survey evaluated and scored regional-level institutions including the administrations of 22 cities, which received an average score of 5.07. (ipa)