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Spike in AGO caseload spurs debate over will vs. flex
The AGO's star has been brightening as the KPK's has been waning over recent years and especially in recent months with a handful of high-profile graft cases, leaving analysts wondering about the political and legal machinations behind these developments.
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Attorney General Sanitiar Burhanuddin (left) speaks during a joint press conference with Pertamina executive director Simon Aloysius Mantiri (center) at his office in South Jakarta on March 6, 2025, to reassure the public that the fuel products of the state-owned oil and gas giant met national standards and was unaffected by the 2018-2023 corruption case involving its subsidiaries. (AFP/Yasuyoshi Chiba)
T
he Attorney General’s Office (AGO) has been making headlines over the past few months with the launch of major corruption investigations incurring trillions of rupiah in state losses, outshining others in the judicial branch, which analysts have attributed to greater government backing and a decline in the performance of its peers in the criminal justice system.
In late February, the AGO arrested several senior executives of state energy giant Pertamina as well as private oil and gas companies as part of its investigation into systemic corruption in the industry.
Spanning five years from 2018 to 2023, the case pertains to fuel fraud and illicit imports, implicates the son of oil tycoon Riza Chalid, dubbed the “godfather of oil”, and is estimated to have cost the state around Rp 1 quadrillion (US$59 billion) in losses.
This is only one in the long list of corruption case at state-owned enterprises (SOEs) that the AGO launched after Sanitiar Burhanuddin took its helm in 2019. Another notorious case is the Rp 40 trillion alleged graft involving state-owned insurance firms Jiwasraya and Asabri.
More recently, the AGO unveiled major corruption totaling an estimated Rp 300 trillion at state-owned PT Timah, the country’s largest tin miner.
Read also: AGO uncovers massive corruption in Indonesia’s tin sector
The AGO’s high-profile graft investigations has helped both it and Burhanuddin gain a reputation for uncovering major scandals at state-owned firms, though the country’s top legal officer told Kompas.com in an interview on Mar 14 that he was simply focusing on cases that “directly affect the people’s livelihoods”.
