T

he Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) plans to target corporations that have been implicated in graft next year to boost its efforts to combat rampant corruption plaguing the country.

KPK commissioner Bambang Widjojanto said on Thursday that the plan was aimed at creating a deterrent effect. '€œ[The KPK plans to do such things] so that there is punishment for corporations because thus far, only individuals are being netted, while corporations are still free to commit other crimes,'€ he said.

According to him, while the law allows for corporations to be charged with corruption, there have been very few cases of such in the world, let alone in Indonesia.

The KPK, therefore, will be testing the waters by attempting to net corporations using Article 20 of Law No. 31/1999 on corruption. '€œThe article has seven items. But there are some problems [in the law] that have to do with the procedural law. It'€™s not complete yet.'€

Bambang admitted that the law contained a legal loophole since it did not clearly stipulate who constituted a person representing a company'€™s interests.

Thus, the KPK needed to ask the Supreme Court to issue a stipulation that would improve the law, Bambang added.

'€œWe are trying to push the court to issue a letter containing the matter so that if we wanted to do something [charge a corporation], the procedural law is clear,'€ he said.

Besides creating a strong legal foundation, the KPK will also make other preparations so that it is well-equipped in its battle against rogue corporations, according to Bambang.

'€œThe preparations have to ready from the very beginning, they cannot be made in the middle [of the battle]. We will prepare the investigators so that they will be really integrated [with our efforts],'€ he said.

Recently, many officials from private and public companies have been dragged into graft cases, with the most recent one being Singapore-based oil trading company Kernel Oil Pte Ltd., a US subsidiary of France-based conglomerate Alstom and meat importing company PT Indoguna Utama.

Kernel Oil directors Widodo Ratanachaithong and Simon Gunawan Tanjaya have been accused of bribing former Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Special Task Force (SKKMigas) chief Rudi Rubiandini.

The bribes, amounting to US$700,000, were given to Rudi in return for a pledge to allocate oil blocks to Fossus Energy Pte. Ltd., another company represented by Widodo. Simon himself has been sentenced to three years'€™ imprisonment while Widodo has yet to be questioned by the KPK on his alleged role.

Indoguna, meanwhile, is at the center of a bribery case revolving around the government'€™s beef importation program implicating many members of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

Three directors of the company, including its owner and president director Maria Elizabeth Liman, have been accused of paying Rp 1.3 billion ($106,600) to then PKS chairman Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq through his aide, Ahmad Fathanah.

The bribe was to be given to Luthfi to influence Agriculture Minister Suswono, another senior PKS politician, to raise the overall national beef import quota. The government has imposed a quota on beef imports to protect local producers, a move widely opposed by importers.

Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician Izedrik Emir Moeis, meanwhile, has been accused of accepting $423,985 in bribes from Alstom Power Inc. in exchange for helping the company secure a tender for the construction of a coal-fired power plant in Tarahan, Lampung, in 2004.