W

hile the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is making headlines for uncovering a slew of major corruption cases implicating top government officials, the National Police are conspicuously absent from the media spotlight when it comes to the fight against graft.

Speaking at a press gathering on Tuesday, National Police Commission (Kompolnas) member M. Nasser said that the police were entitled to spend Rp 208 million (US$19,344) to investigate each corruption case, seven times more than last year'€™s allocation of Rp 30 million per case.

'€œThe National Police aim to investigate 916 cases this year, meaning that they will get a total of Rp 190 billion. But, as of August, they have not uncovered any major or interesting corruption case,'€ he said.

Kompolnas attributed the problem to strong political interference in police investigations.

'€œThe police are getting used to intervention, particularly from political parties. For instance, former health minister [Siti Fadillah Supari] was named a graft suspect long ago but as yet, there has been no progress in her case,'€ Nasser said.

Last year, National Police detectives chief Comr. Gen. Sutarman named Siti a suspect in a botched Health Ministry procurement in 2005 that caused Rp 6.15 billion in state losses. Siti led the Health Ministry between 2004 and 2009, before serving as a member of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono'€™s advisory council from 2010.

Another Kompolnas commissioner Hamidah Abdurrachman said bureaucrats and legislators abused their power to prevent the police from investigating corruption cases implicating them.

Hamidah said that such intervention happened with the Gorontalo Police. In May, the Gorontalo Police summoned Gorontalo governor Rusli Habibie as a witness in alleged misappropriation in the distribution of free sembako, or basic foodstuffs, in the province.

Hamidah said that the investigation prompted Rusli to send a letter to National Police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo, urging the dismissal of Gorontalo Police chief Brig. Gen. Budi Waseso.

'€œResponding to that, Kompolnas conveyed a letter to the National Police chief, urging that he [Budi] should not be discharged from his current post,'€ she said.

Aside from political intervention, Kompolnas commissioner Edi Saputra Hasibuan pointed out the lack of supervision of police investigations, particularly at the city and provincial levels. '€œWe have plenty of corruption cases at the regional level. But [some police] tamper with the cases because there is no supervision,'€ Edi said.

Last year, the National Police completed the dossiers on 657 corruption cases, exceeding their target of 604 cases. The cases involved a total of Rp 1.57 trillion in state losses, of which Rp 261 billion has been reimbursed.

The National Police'€™s corruption investigations division and the Jakarta Police were the top performers, completing corruption cases involving state losses of Rp 577 billion and Rp 442 billion, respectively.

The corruption investigations division, which handled 22 cases in 2012, is expected to investigate 23 cases this year. The Jakarta Police expects to complete the investigation of 37 cases, a significant jump from last year'€™s tally of 13 cases.