The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) named House of Representatives member Amin Santono a suspect on Saturday, after arresting him in a raid on Friday.

Amin, a Democratic Party politician who represents an electoral district in West Java and who sits on House Commission XI overseeing financial affairs, is suspected of receiving bribes in connection with the allocation of funds for regional administrations in the 2018 state budget.

“The KPK has been investigating this case since December 2017, after receiving information from the public,” KPK deputy chairman Saut Situmorang said in a press conference on Saturday.

Amin was arrested together with private contractor Ahmad Ghiast and suspected middleman Eka Kamaluddin at a restaurant at Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport in East Jakarta.

Finance Ministry official Yaya Purnomo, who was also named a suspect in the case, was arrested separately at his home in Bekasi, West Java.

The KPK team found Rp 400 million (US$28,720) in cash in Amin’s car as well as a bank transfer receipt for Rp 100 million.

“We suspect that the Rp 500 million is part of a 7 percent commitment fee that was promised from two projects in Sumedang regency [in West Java] with a total value of Rp 25 billion,” Saut said. “We suspect that the total commitment fee is about Rp 1.7 billion.”

He added that Ahmad had reportedly transferred the Rp 100 million through Eka’s bank account and handed over the Rp 400 million in cash to Amin shortly before the KPK raid.

The KPK also confiscated 1.9 kilograms of gold, S$63,000, US$12,500 in banknotes, and an additional Rp 1.4 billion during the operation.

KPK chairman Agus Rahardjo said his office was particularly concerned about the case since it pertained to the state budget and urged the government to make the system more transparent in order to avoid similar cases in the future. “The lack of transparency means there is still an opportunity for lobbying, for secret conversations in which people may be offered something,” he said.

Soon after the KPK’s naming of the suspects, the Democratic Party released a statement saying the party had dismissed Amin.

“As a form of support for the KPK and as part of the Democratic Party’s moral responsibility to allow no room for graft, the central board has decided to dishonorably dismiss AS [Amin] from the party and from the House of Representatives,” its secretary-general Hinca Panjaitan said in the statement on Saturday.

Hinca also apologized to the public, saying the party would continue to support the eradication of corruption and would not tolerate any corrupt practices.

Activist Lucius Karus of Indonesian Parliament Watch (Formappi) said the arrest of yet another House member for graft further proved that integrity was lacking in politics.

“Integrity or morality has become something that is relative, or even unimportant for political parties that produce members that choose to become politicians not because of their ideals but to enrich themselves,” Lucius said.

“Both the House and political parties are sustained by a governance system that gives rise to graft opportunities,” he added.

Another activist, Donal Fariz of Indonesia Corruption Watch, said the continued corrupt behavior of lawmakers pointed to a lack of reform in the way political parties worked.

“Parties are quick to wash their hands of a member who is caught in a KPK raid, as if it was just a personal problem,” he said. “But this will continue to happen if parties don’t make fundamental changes in their recruitment and education system.”

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