T

he Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has reached another milestone in handling corporate crime, with its prosecutors having indicted the first corporation in a graft case on Thursday.

KPK prosecutors accused publicly listed construction company PT Duta Graha Indah (DGI) of being involved in a rigged bid for the construction of state-owned Udayana University hospital in Bali during the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

Prosecutor Lie Putra Setiawan said that the company, which had changed its name to PT Nusa Konstruksi Enjiniring (NKE), was awarded the tender in exchange for bribes.

The tender was rigged by former lawmaker Muhammad Nazaruddin of the Democratic Party after former DGI president director Dudung Purwadi, now serving a jail term, asked Nazaruddin to help him secure the project for the company in return for gratuities.

“[That wrongdoing has] enriched the corporation by Rp 24.7 billion [US$1.6 million] as well as Nazaruddin and his companies by Rp 10.3 billion,” Lie read out the indictment during the first hearing at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Thursday.

DGI transferred Rp 10.1 billion in illicit fees to Nazaruddin via some of the latter’s companies, including PT Anak Negeri and Permai Group.

Several individuals have been convicted in the case, including Dudung, Nazaruddin, former Udayana University official Made Meregawa and businessman Marisi Matondang.

The graft case has caused Rp 25.9 billion in state losses.

DGI’s indictment also revealed that DGI had secured several other projects, including the graft-ridden 2011 athletes village project in South Sumatra, as a result of Nazaruddin’s tampering in exchange for illicit fees.

However, suspicions have yet to confirmed that Nazaruddin had turned projects handled by DGI into sources of funding for the Democratic Party.

DGI is the first company to be brought to court in the KPK’s history, thanks to a 2016 Supreme Court decree that paves the way for law enforcers to handle corporate crimes, including corruption and money laundering.

The decree provides detailed procedures on how the KPK should handle corporate crimes, provisions that had not been provided by the Criminal Law Procedures Code.

Under the decree, companies may face fines if they are found guilty of benefitting from corruption or allowing it to take place. Their assets may be confiscated if they fail to pay the fines.

The KPK has since been targeting graft-tainted companies, including state-owned construction firm PT Nindya Karya which was named a suspect in April in the botched construction of a loading dock in a government harbor project in Aceh.

“We hope this first indictment against the company sends a message to other corporate entities that running a clean business and enforcing good corporate governance are imperative to preventing corruption,” KPK spokesman Febri Diansyah said.