T

he presence of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) since 2005 has sped up the handling of corruption cases, a researcher at Gadjah Mada University (UGM) has said.

Speaking about the results of his research at a forum, Rimawan Pradiptyo of the UGM School of Economy and Business (FEB) said the KPK had successfully pushed both the police and prosecutors to deal with graft cases.

'€œThe KPK has many experts, that'€™s why when a case is being handled by a court of law, the KPK is able to produce evidence that expedites the process,'€ Rimawan told the forum via video-link from Hiroshima, Japan.

Entitled Biar Lambat Asal Sampai di Tujuan: Estimasi Proportional Hazard Model Proses Pengadilan Kasus Korupsi di Indonesia (Better late than never: Proportional Hazard Model Estimation Process in Indonesian Corruption Court Cases), the research was a continuation of a paper written by Timotius Hendrik Partohapa former FEB UGM student.

'€œThe research assesses the time needed by a court in Indonesia to finish a corruption case,'€ said Rimawan, who used a total of 1,789 verdicts filed at the Supreme Court from 2001 to 2012 to inform his research.

Based on a parametric analysis, he said, graft cases handled by KPK at the district court level since 2005 were 39.8 percent quicker than those pre-2005. Cases handled by the police and prosecutors in the same period, sped up by 28.7 percent.

The same was also evident at the higher court level with cases handled by KPK 124 percent quicker and those handled by the police and prosecutors 38.4 percent quicker.

At the Supreme Court, cases handled by the KPK were 158 percent quicker than those handled by other institution.

Rimawan said that such handling benefited the taxpayer because most court processes were financed by the state and it cost Rp 10,000 (86 US cents) per case at the maximum.

Meanwhile, Timotius said that the parametric analysis he used for his thesis was usually used by engineering and medical students to learn, among other things, the probability of survival for a cancer patient.

'€œThe research shows that the KPK can improve the Corruption Court in Indonesia,'€ said Timotius who graduated in 2012.

He also said that he was the first to conduct research on the KPK using his particular choice of analysis. Together with Rimawan he planned to publish the results in international scientific journals.

'€œWe want to inform the world that the court system in Indonesia is getting better,'€ he said.

Separately, researcher Oce Madril of the UGM Center for Anti-Corruption Studies said that the KPK was successful because of its good track record and the Law on corruption eradication, which sets a time limit for the handling of graft cases.

'€œThe KPK is more technically capable in collecting evidence for corruption cases, detaining suspects and taking the cases to the court,'€ Oce said.