T

he Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) should aggressively use its existing powers to seize the assets of corruption suspects to recover taxpayer money, several critics have agreed.

Under the 2010 Money Laundering Law, the KPK has been authorized to charge graft suspects with money laundering and to request confidential information on suspicious transactions from the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK).

KPK spokesman Johan Budi said on Thursday that the commission would use the law more often to recover more public money from corrupt officials.

“The law enables us to return stolen assets to the state coffers more effectively.”

Despite the spokesman’s statements, the commission has yet to make good on such intentions.

Last year, the KPK recovered a scant Rp 113 billion (11.64 million) in state funds from convicted corruptors, down from Rp 134.65 billion in 2011, Rp 179.99 billion in 2010 and Rp 142.99 billion in 2009.

Wa Ode Nurhayati, a former lawmaker on the House of Representatives budget committee, was the first person charged by KPK with money laundering.

Although Wa Ode was convicted, the commission recovered only Rp 10 billion out of Rp 50 billion that she allegedly illegally obtained.

“Our legislative tools are improving now, but law enforcement and judiciary officials are still using an old approach,” Donal Fariz of the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) said.

Separately, Kuntoro Mangkusu-broto, the head of the Presidential Working Unit for the Supervision and Management of Development (UKP4), previously described the commission’s current approach as unsatisfactory.

Kuntoro said that current laws providing for asset seizures and imposing a reverse burden of proof on suspects were rarely used.

The Supreme Court is currently enacting a regulation requiring judges to allow prosecutors to seize assets from graft defendants before verdicts are handed down.

Donal said that current regulations on money laundering and asset seizures could be a powerful tool for the commission, allowing it to confiscate assets without having to first prove predicate crimes.

I Made Hendra, an ad hoc judge for the Jakarta Corruption Court, said that his fellow jurists were generally passive in such cases, ceding the initiative to the KPK.

“The KPK’s prosecutors can ask the court to place the burden of proof on the defendant about the illicit assets,” he told The Jakarta Post.

In what is thought to be a first, the South Jakarta District Court in 2011 — responding to a request from prosecutors from the Attorney General’s Office — imposed the burden of proof concept on former tax official Bahasyim Assifie.

The court confiscated Rp 60 billion and $681,487 in foreign currency from Bahasyim after he was unable to prove the source of funds.

Trisakti University law expert and former judge Asep Iwan Iriawan said that it was up to the KPK alone how to use its authority.

Since the Money Laundering Law was enacted in 2010, the KPK has used it to charge several corruption suspects in hopes of recovering billions in stolen state assets.

There are three graft suspects currently facing money laundering charges: former National Police Traffic Corps chief Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo; Ahmad Fathanah, a suspect in the import beef scandal; and the disgraced lawmaker and high-profile graft convict Muhammad Nazaruddin.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono recently ordered authorities to take necessary steps to eradicate corruption based on asset recovery and by establishing international cooperation, as stated in 2013 Presidential Instruction No. 1 on Action on Corruption Prevention and Eradication.