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Manpower shortage hampers KPK investigations
KPK deputy chairman Saut Situmorang said the commission was working on “one case at a time due to the low number of KPK employees.”
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Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) head Agus Rahardjo (right) and his deputy Saut Situmorang (left) attend a hearing held by House of Representatives’ Commission III on legal affairs on Sept. 11. The hearing was aimed at getting updates on the KPK’s performance.
(Antara/Puspa Perwitasari)
T
he Corruption Eradication Commission’s (KPK) latest move in naming a new suspect in a graft case related to the disbursement of Bank Indonesia Liquidity Support (BLBI) might have given the general public new hope that the commission will open more high-profile cases or, at least, solve old and unsolvable cases in the future.
Such hope, however, has been dismissed by the antigraft body itself, with the KPK stating it might need more time to work on more cases due to limited manpower in its investigation team.
On Monday, the KPK announced that it had named Sjamsul Nursalim, the owner of Bank Dagang Negara Indonesia (BDNI), and his wife Itjih, as suspects in a corruption case pertaining to irregularities surrounding the BLBI disbursement.
The case had caused Rp 4.58 trillion (US$321 million) in state losses, making it one of the biggest corruption cases handled by the KPK.
Upon being asked whether the antigraft body would announce more high-profile corruption cases in the near future after Sjamsul’s suspect naming, KPK deputy chairman Saut Situmorang said the commission was working on “one case at a time due to the low number of KPK employees.”
“Sjamsul’s suspect naming was made possible thanks to a court verdict against Syafruddin Arsyad Temenggung,” Saut told The Jakarta Post recently, referring to the name of another suspect in the case.
Last year, the Jakarta Corruption Court declared Syafruddin, the former chairman of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA), to 13 years in prison for manipulating BDNI’s credit status in 2004. The verdict was upheld by the Jakarta High Court, which increased the sentence to 15 years in prison and a fine of Rp 1 billion earlier this year.
