Tjatur Sapto Edy, a member of the House of Representatives’ Commission III overseeing legal affairs, said Sunday that the magnitude of the corruption in the sector “is just about the same as in the tax office.”

“[Corruption in land management] is also huge. We’ve heard rumors about it but no one has ever really brought this matter up until now,” he told The Jakarta Post.

The Judicial Mafia Taskforce is paving the way in unmasking corruption in the country’s land management system, overseen by the National Land Agency (BPN).

The taskforce said over the weekend that it was studying reports from the public in order to identify corruption patterns in the sector.

National Mandate Party (PAN) lawmaker Tjatur said many of the reports received by his commission were related to land ownership issues.

“The reports come from all over Indonesia. There have been so many complaints,” he said.

The land agency’s lackluster management can mostly be seen in cases where a plot of land has more than one certificate, the lack of transparency in issuing land permits and in difficulties in applying for land permits for investment, he said.

“I have heard from many regents who said investors were afraid to put their money in the regions because of individuals at the local land agencies who made it difficult for them to get permits.”

“The House’s legal commission has long suspected that there were many ‘land mafias’ operating in the country,” he told the Post.

Tjatur pledged his commission’s support for the task force’s effort to reveal corruption in the country’s land management.

“If the task force, the KPK [Corruption Eradication Commission] and law enforcers make this matter a priority, the commission will support them,” he said.

Another legal commission member, Aziz Syamsuddin, said the commission would follow up on the matter as soon as it received all the data and facts on alleged corruption.

“If the data is strong and if we find indications [of corruption] during our field visit to the agency, a special committee may be formed at the House to investigate the matter,” the Golkar Party politician said.

The commission has yet to schedule any hearings with the task force or the BPN.

Tjatur said he hoped the task force’s efforts to unmask corruption in land management would serve as a wake-up call for the BPN to reform.

“I do hope that the BPN chief can respond to this by using it as a boost to reform BPN’s management,” he said.

The BPN was not immediately available for comment on Sunday.

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