T

he Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has revealed its findings that many civil servants of various ranks have been trading their housing facilities illegally.

KPK deputy chairman Haryono Umar told reporters on Friday that the antigraft body had recovered
Rp 2,876 billion (US$336,000) in potential losses from the “trading” of 681 state-owned houses.

The infringement was initially detected in a public official’s full asset statement (LHKPN) in 2008. After the KPK investigated further, based on the statement, it discovered that the sale and purchase of state-owned houses had been rampant among civil servants in receipt of state housing facilities in 20 ministries and state-owned enterprises both in the capital and in the regions.

“We have been cooperating with ministries and state-owned enterprises to clamp down on the violations and reclaiming the properties which have already been sold,” Haryono said.

LHKPN official Adlinsyah M. Nasution explained that the trading practices violated Presidential Decree No. 40/1994 which stipulated that state housing facilities could not be traded.

However, Haryono said that in practice the trade could not be categorized as a crime.

“Mostly they [civil servants] did it because they felt comfortable using the facilities, while some others did it because, as they had been working as civil servants for quite some time, it was their right,” he said.

Haryono said that the civil servants who had indulged in such practices were not only those in the lower levels but even those who were already at the top level. He called on the regulation on state assets to be made clearer in the future to prevent such practices recurring.

“Assets which clearly belong to the state should be returned. In this case, the Finance Ministry should be more proactive in controlling the state assets because they are the ones who administer them,” said Haryono.

The KPK’s success in recovering the state assets, however, will not necessarily stop the practices from happening again.

Adlinsyah said there were many housing facilities which were currently under negotiation. He also said with some other houses that had already been traded the deals were now in the process of being revoked.

Haryono said that he had found that there were 16,000 housing facilities belonging to the state railway company PT KAI which were illegally inhabited by low-income families.

“We have asked PT KAI to handle the problem. However, considering that the illegal occupants are from poorer families, we must use more humane solutions [to deal with it].”

Haryono said other cases that should be put under the spotlight were, for instance, houses belonging to state-owned enterprises along Jl. Dago, Bandung, that had been converted into business entities. (rpt