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Police antigraft corps
It is uncertain whether the new corps will be able or willing to pursue graft cases implicating police officers.
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President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo inaugurates five members of the Corruption Eradication Commission's (KPK) supervisory council in December 2019. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
T
he country’s fight against corruption has taken a new twist as 44 former graft busters from the troubled Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) join the newly formed National Police Corruption Eradication Corps (Kortas).
Recruited as civil servants, the former KPK investigators, who include Novel Baswedan, will answer to National Police chief Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo. Kortas will be the fifth unit to fall directly under the police chief’s supervision, alongside the Mobile Brigade Corps (Korbrimob), the Traffic Police Corps (Korlantas), the Professional and Security Division (Propam) and the Special Detachment (Densus) 88 counterterrorism squad.
The formation of Kortas means the Crime Investigation Agency (Bareskrim) will disband its Corruption Crime Directorate.
A corps should, on paper, have more authority than a directorate, and we may be able to expect less outside intervention in cases handled by Kortas. But the arrangement may also create jurisdictional overlap between Bareskrim and Kortas detectives, making for a possible sibling rivalry inside an already problem-laden institution.
The civil servant status of the former KPK investigators may also present issues, because in the police and the military, civil servants very rarely hold strategic posts. Most such positions are held by those in uniform.
Will they be treated as fresh recruits despite their vast experience? Or will some kind of adjustment be made so that they are treated as peer-level entries from another state institution?
We must also wait to see whether the former KPK employees will be given significant roles or simply be treated as ordinary staff, pending the results of their police training in January.
But the new recruits may not even be investigating corruption cases, as National Police chief spokesman Insp. Gen. Dedy Prasetyo said most would be in charge of corruption “prevention” within Kortas.
The corps may have three other divisions responsible for investigation, enforcement and interagency cooperation respectively.
It is also uncertain whether the new corps will be able or willing to pursue graft cases implicating police officers. Such investigations, if they occur at all, could spark turf wars with Propam, which is usually responsible for internal investigations.
The new corps will result in structural changes to the provincial police. Two criminal investigation directorates exist at present, one for general and one for special crimes, and the special crimes directorate may be morphed into a subset of Kortas. At the regional level, however, only one criminal investigation unit exists.
Perhaps placing the former graft busters in the prevention division is meant to prevent the “disruptions” that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo mentioned in a speech on International Anticorruption Day on Dec. 9.
Jokowi called on law enforcement institutions to move away from high-profile arrests and sting operations in favor of less disruptive campaigns for corruption prevention. The strategy, however, may weaken the deterrence effect of the anticorruption drive, as corrupt officials may no longer have to look over their shoulders.
Eradicating corruption, like anything worth doing, takes serious and sustained effort, so we welcome Kortas on board. The credentials and experience of the former KPK investigators will hopefully help transform the country’s fight against graft.
