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All eyes on cops in KPK race
Graft activists have raised a red flag over the “questionable” track records of three candidates vying for the top posts at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), calling on the selection committee to be thorough in vetting applicants
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span>Graft activists have raised a red flag over the “questionable” track records of three candidates vying for the top posts at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), calling on the selection committee to be thorough in vetting applicants.
The committee announced on Thursday that 192 out of 367 applicants had passed the first stage of the selection process.
The successful candidates include 40 academics, 39 lawyers, 17 private employees, 13 judges, 13 police officers, 13 KPK officials, nine auditors, five prosecutors and 43 people from state institutions and civil society groups.
Of all the candidates, three — two policemen and one lawyer — have been deemed problematic.
They are National Police deputy chief detective Insp. Gen. Antam Novambar, South Sumatra Police chief Insp. Gen. Firli, who served as KPK deputy for law enforcement from April 2018 until last month, and Saut Edward Rajagukguk, the lawyer of Golkar Party lawmaker and corruption suspect Bowo Sidik Pangarso.
In 2015, Antam was accused of intimidating then-KPK law enforcement deputy Endang Tars into providing favorable testimony for then-National Police deputy chief Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan.
At the time, Budi was facing an allegation of having accepted bribes and gratuities amounting to Rp 95 billion [US$6.7 million] when he was head of the National Police’s career development bureau from 2004 to 2005 in the rank of brigadier general.
The graft charges against Budi, a politically wired figure known to be close to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) matriarch Megawati Soekarnoputri, sparked a conflict between the police and the KPK. Budi, who now leads the nation’s spy agency, was cleared of all charges.
Antam, who was then a bureau head at the Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) with the rank of brigadier general, strongly denied the allegation back in 2015. He did not respond when contacted by The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Firli, meanwhile, was under investigation for an alleged ethics breach last year amid accusations he had meddled in a graft investigation implicating former West Nusa Tenggara governor M. Zainul Majdi, popularly known as Tuan Guru Bajang (TGB).
He denied the accusations, claiming that KPK commissioners had declared he had not violated the ethics code.
TGB was a witness in a corruption case involving the divestment of gold and copper mining company PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara.
Saut, meanwhile, said he wanted to improve the KPK even though he is now representing a suspect in a bribery case handled by the anticorruption body.
His client, Bowo, was charged with accepting bribes from a private shipping company that provides services for PT Pupuk Indonesia Logistics, a subsidiary of state-owned PT Pupuk Indonesia Holding Company.
“I am applying for KPK leadership because I am optimistic and I want to improve the KPK,” he said.
Transparency International Indonesia researcher Wawan Sujatmiko criticized the selection team’s decision to only consider administrative matters as criteria in the first selection process and give a pass to candidates with questionable track records.
“Antam has a dubious track record because he allegedly threatened KPK official Endang Tarsa [...] while Firli was involved in ethical [violations] when he held the position of law enforcement deputy and met with TGB,” he said. “Saut is the lawyer of a graft suspect; it is unethical for him to want to be involved in [the fight against corruption]”.
Wawan called on the public to keep track of the candidates and submit a report to the selection team if they found that a candidate’s track record could have hindered anticorruption efforts.
“To allow the team to get 10 candidates that meet the expectations of the public, the selection team must be extra careful in examining track records,” he said.
Indonesia Corruption Watch researcher Kurnia Ramadhana said the committee should make sure that no candidate with a checkered past passes the tests.
“[The selection team] must ensure that the candidates have clean legal records,” Kurnia said in a statement made available to the press on Friday.
The team must also check whether any candidates had violated ethics codes when serving in their previous institutions, he said.
“If the selection team chose active law enforcement officers [as KPK commissioners] then they must first announce their resignation in the previous institution […] so that potential conflicts of interest could be minimized,” Kurnia added.
The KPK is seen as one of the most credible institutions and has become an institution to reckon with in politics.
The commission has jailed a number of party leaders and high-profile figures over graft. It is currently handling graft cases implicating at least three Cabinet members.
The candidates are scheduled to take a competency test on July 18 comprising an objective test and paper writing. The results of the competency test are expected to be announced on July 25, after which the candidates will be further screened.
Those who pass the competency test will undergo a psychological test, profile assessment test and public hearing. The selection team will then pick 10 names to be submitted to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Aug. 30.
Jokowi will then submit the names to the House of Representatives, which will conduct a confirmation hearing.
The current KPK leadership group ends its term in December. (awa)
