"The supervisory board concluded that there was not enough evidence to proceed against Firli Bahuri to be brought to an ethics hearing," board member Tumpak Hatorangan Panggabean said.

At least 30 people were questioned by the board, including five KPK leaders and the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry's Deputy Inspector General M. Idris Froyoto Sihite, who claimed to have received documents from the controversial KPK chairman.  

The report was based on a video footage that was circulating on social media in April. The footage purportedly shows KPK investigators finding KPK’s investigation documents while searching the ministry’s building. A KPK investigator then asked Idris how he obtained the documents, to which he said, “the minister obtained the documents from Pak Firli,” referring to the Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Arifin Tasrif.

The board confirmed that the video footage circulating online was authentic, but it did not find evidence that the energy minister had ordered Idris to contact Firli.

Idris, it said, had also clarified that he actually obtained the said documents from a businessman, identified only as Suryo, at the Sari Pan Pacific hotel in Central Jakarta.  

The board also concluded that the documents were not KPK documents, saying they use a different font from the one used in KPK official documents.

The ethics breach allegations were made by former KPK investigations director Endar Priantoro and 16 other people who declined to be identified.  

Endar also reported Firli to the supervisory board over his dismissal, which he said was not lawful. The KPK has insisted that Endar’s dismissal is in line with his contract period, which ended on March 31. National Police chief Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo, however, maintains he had extended Endar’s tenure at the KPK before the deadline.

Endar is a police Brig. Gen. seconded to the KPK.

The board said the dispute over Endar’s dismissal was beyond their authority and should be resolved at the State Administrative Court (PTUN).

Firli has been accused of and found guilty of ethics breach several times since he took over the KPK leadership in 2019.

He was reported to the KPK supervisory board in 2020 for awarding his wife, Ardina Safitri, for writing a hymn song for the antigraft body. He was later accused of using public money to blast anti-graft campaign messages via SMS on his behalf. The board exonerated him in both cases.

In September 2020, the board declared Firli guilty of an ethics violation for displaying a “hedonistic lifestyle” by riding a helicopter on a personal trip from Palembang to Baturaja, both in South Sumatra. The board, however, only handed down a light sentence in the form of a written reprimand for his first ethics violation.

In 2018, an internal KPK investigation concluded that Firli had committed gross ethical violations for meeting with then-West Nusa Tenggara governor Zainul Majdi, who at the time was a witness in a corruption case.

The board said it was planning to bring to an ethics hearing KPK commissioner Johanis Tanak, who was found in contact with Idris when the antigraft body investigated the alleged corruption in the ministry.

The KPK Law prohibits its leaders from communicating, directly or indirectly, with anyone under KPK investigation. A violation is punishable by up to five years in prison.

This is not the first time a KPK commissioner faced an ethics probe for communicating with a person of interest in the antigraft body investigation.

Johanis’s predecessor Lili Pintauli Siregar in September 2021 was found guilty of keeping in close contact with M. Syahrial, then mayor of Tanjungbalai, North Sumatra, who at the time was under KPK’s probe into an alleged bribery. As a result, Lili’s basic salary was reduced by 40 percent over the next 12 months.