T

he Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has decided to review its raid procedures following protests from lawmakers over a recent search at the House of Representatives building.

The antigraft body'€™s investigators, accompanied by armed officers from the National Police'€™s Mobile Brigade (Brimob), raided on Friday the offices of three lawmakers implicated in a bribery case related to a planned construction project in the Maluku Islands.

The raid enraged House leaders, who believed that the KPK and police had disrespected the House by carrying weapons inside the state building.

KPK commissioner Basaria Pandjaitan maintained that bringing armed Brimob officials during the search was in line with existing regulations, but said the antigraft body was open to changes that would ensure '€œsmoother and better'€ operations in the future.

'€œWe will evaluate it. [The controversy] should have not happened. There was likely a misunderstanding,'€ Basaria told reporters on Tuesday.

After arresting Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician Damayanti Wisnu Putranti on bribery allegations on Wednesday night, KPK investigators searched her office, as well as that of Budi Supriyanto of the Golkar Party and Yudi Widiana of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), all of whom are members of House Commission V overseeing infrastructure.

Damayanti stands accused of accepting bribes from PT Windhu Tunggal Utama (WTU) CEO Abdul Khoir, who is eyeing the project in Maluku.

Abdul, who was arrested along with Damayanti on Wednesday night, is alleged to have distributed S$404,000 to a number of recipients, including Damayanti.

A quarrel broke out during Friday'€™s raid when House Deputy Speaker Fahri Hamzah and lawmaker M. Nasir Djamil, both members of PKS, attempted to block KPK investigators from entering Yudi'€™s office.

Although she said that the use of armed Brimob officers was justified under existing procedures, Basaria, who is a retired two-star police general, said that KPK commissioners would meet the House summons to provide clarification over the raid, a move that antigraft activists deemed as '€œunnecessary'€.

'€œShould we be invited to the House, we will accept the invitation,'€ said the first female KPK commissioner.

House pressure on the KPK comes after the anticorruption body said that it would expand its investigation into Damayanti by naming more suspects, possibly House lawmakers, in the case.

Damayanti is the third House lawmaker to be arrested by the KPK since the legislative elections in April 2014. The KPK previously arrested PDI-P lawmaker Adriansyah and Dewi Yasin Limpo of the Hanura Party on allegation of accepting bribes in separate cases in 2015.

Anticorruption campaigner Erwin Natosmal of the Indonesian Legal Roundtable (ILR) lambasted Basaria for bowing to House pressure, adding that the House'€™s move to summons KPK leaders aimed at intimidating the KPK.

'€œI think the House has been successful,'€ Erwin added.

Erwin further said that Basaria'€™s comment on the raid evaluation plan had confirmed the public'€™s assumption that the five newly sworn-in KPK commissioners were selected by the House to make the antigraft body a toothless law enforcement institution.