Antara/Aditya Pradana Putra

The new Corruption Law has been passed despite widespread protests, mainly out of conviction that the antigraft agency will no longer be independent. The new law puts restrictions on the commission’s ability to investigate allegations of corruption against public officials.

An investigation of a corrupt act is conducted within an adversarial environment where the investigated parties do not want the investigators to complete their tasks. This condition requires the entire process to be carefully planned and executed to ensure its success. Two of the most important critical success factors of a corruption investigation are independence and confidentiality.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) had argued that the new Corruption Law would cause the commission to lose its independence since it was now part of the executive power. Moreover, the new law stipulates that the commission staff are now part of the civil servant corps, raising fears of the KPK’s independence in investigating corruption cases in public institutions.

The new law also places the KPK under a supervisory council. Among the KPK’s major concerns regarding the new supervisory council is that it will create more layers of bureaucracy in handling corruption cases as some procedures, including surveillance, search and confiscation are now subject to the council’s approval.

Just like any other fraud investigation, corruption investigations are designed to answer primarily the “what, where, when, how, who and why” in relation to past events. To answer such questions, investigators need to be equipped with the right tools, the right competencies, the right attitudes and also the right procedures.

Unlike common street criminals, white-collar criminals such as corruption offenders do not disappear from the scene after they commit their offenses. They remain in their jobs, positions and social status until they are caught. A fraudulent act will usually involve an initial act, concealment and conversion (i.e., enjoying the proceeds). The “concealment” process consists of efforts to hide the traces of the initial acts and the proceeds thereof to ensure they are not uncovered the authorities.

Gathering evidence in any corruption investigation needs to be conducted in the shortest amount of time while maintaining the highest level of confidentiality to minimize the potential risk of missing or altered evidence.

Managing evidence gathering in a corruption investigation is in itself a challenging task. Investigators need to apply various management exercises to allocate their resources effectively and efficiently in various activities such as covert operations, surveillance, dumpster-diving, to name a few. In practice, evidence gathering management covers more than allocation of resources to find evidence to reconstruct past events. To anticipate future court appearances, investigators must ensure that all evidence is obtained lawfully.

Upon being obtained, all evidence must be properly preserved so as to avoid future problems (for example being rejected by the court), which highlights the importance of establishing a proper chain of custody. A comprehensive record must be made concerning dates of receipt and removal of evidence as well as other information about their custody. Needless to say, in the world of professional fraud investigation, losing key evidence is an “unforgivable sin” as it may jeopardize the entire investigation.

According to the new law, corruption investigations and prosecution work not completed within two years can be ceased. This implies that the KPK now has to conduct its investigative works more time efficiently than before with limited resources.

With all the limitations set by the new law, the KPK needs to reinvent its corruption investigation approaches. For example, new evidence gathering methods must be developed to ensure that all evidence is properly gathered without wasting too much time. New state-of-the-art technologies can be used to assist investigators in analyzing complex data more systematically to identify patterns that may indicate corrupt acts.

Also, investigators’ level of competence needs to be upgraded to cope with the new methods and technologies. For these purposes, the recently established forensic accounting unit at the KPK may serve as a development center for continuous innovation in developing new tools that can be used by the investigators to work more effectively and efficiently.

Finally, despite all the future obstacles arising from the new law, as the nation’s anticorruption agency, the KPK must not indulge in pessimism or defeatism. The public needs to see its anticorruption champion stand tall amid the adversity and pressure that eradicating corruption in a country brings.

Studies suggest that messages regarding anticorruption from mass media can have both positive and negative effects on society, which in turn will affect attitudes toward corruption. Positive messages have been known to motivate the public to participate in the fight against corruption whereas negative messages will establish the firm belief that corruption is here to stay, no matter what we do to fight it.

___________________

Director of the Center for Forensic Accounting Studies at the Islamic University of Indonesia (UII), Yogyakarta.

Popular

Stocks sink, oil surges on reports of Middle East attacks

Israel launches strike against Iran: US media

North Sulawesi volcano eruption forces evacuations, airport closure