T

he joint monitoring of project procurements is part of a new tri-agency strategy to combat corruption that was unveiled on Thursday by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) and the National Police.

The agencies signed a deal to agree to closer cooperation between the three graft-busting bodies when it came to corruption investigations and prosecutions.

Under the agreement, the three agencies will work more closely in the 10 areas most vulnerable to corruption, including the oil and gas, services and tax sectors, along with procurement management.

Attorney General Basrief Arief said that although no priority would be given to one area, procurement processes would be more closely scrutinized given that it was the most prone to graft.

Basrief pointed out that the majority of graft cases handled by the KPK concerned government procurement processes.

The high-profile graft cases involving former Democratic Party treasurer M. Nazaruddin revolved around project procurement, in the construction of an athletes’ village for the Southeast Asian Games in Palembang, South Sumatra, and other sports facilities in Hambalang, West Java.

Currently, the KPK is investigating allegations of graft linked to the procurement of medical equipment to handle the 2006 bird flu epidemic, involving former health minister Siti Fadillah Supari.

The new agreement, which came into immediate effect and will expire in four years, also overrides all previous agreements signed by the KPK and police, and the KPK and the AGO, in 2005.

Details of the agreement mostly concern cooperation between the agencies in the prosecution of graft cases.

Article 11 of the agreement states that each institution should mutually give assistance over a number of issues, from providing protection to whistleblowers, to the deployment of security personnel to help secure the investigations into alleged graft.

The three institutions have also agreed to join forces in the retrieval of government assets taken in graft cases.

Article 18 of the agreement states that all three institutions will work together to find stolen assets both within Indonesia and abroad, as well as pressing charges against those who receive money from acts of corruption.

National Police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo praised the agreement and said it marked an important step toward eradicating corruption in the country.

“We expect to be able to come up with a coordinated and effective system to prevent corruption,” Timur said.

Basrief said that the agreement was an implementation of the Presidential Instruction (Inpres) No. 17/2011, which outlines the government’s strategy to combat corruption in 2012.

“We hope to implement it seriously,” Basrief said.

Also present at the meeting were government ombudsmen, members of the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), representatives from the House of Representative’s Commission III overseeing legal affairs and officials from the Law and Human Rights Ministry. (fzm)