Febri Diansyah

When Corruption Flows to the Regions

VIVAnews – Since the regional autonomy policy entered into force in 2001, most of the power and authority of the central government were effectively transferred to the local governments. A famous British historian, Lord Acton once said, “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”   

Since the regional autonomy policy is implemented, automatically corruption shifts from central to regional government. This is because the local government has the authority to develop and administer its own area. In addition, the head of the local government also has full authority to manage the local budget.

Unfortunately, such power decentralization does not seem to be accompanied by the strengthening of a decentralization monitoring system. As a result, the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) always finds irregularities in the use of local budgets (APBD).

Tragically, such irregularities are widespread throughout the country. A rough estimate of its percentage is 30 percent. This is indeed a significant figure, especially if we add other cases involving the misuse of authority.

However, what the type of corruption that we should watch out forare those controlled by the central government, such as the procurement of the fire department vehicles and the tax collection fee. Especially since tax fees have a  legal base, which is the regulation of the Minister of Domestic Affairs.

   

The corruption at the regional levels will become more intense if there is no adequate monitoring by the law enforcement agency.

It is not impossible that their number will be equal to or even bigger than it was in the New Order era. The only difference between them is that the recipients of embezzled money are more numerous and more equally distributed among the local elites.

As such, in the future, the specialized crimes unit within the district attorney’s offices should be revitalized in order to minimize budget corruptions. It will be difficult to merely rely on the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).  

In the future, it is possible that KPK will be present in areas that where there are corruption courts. However, this will not be enough. It’s better to rely on the specialized crimes unit within the district attorney’s offices across the provinces, regencies, and municipalities. Such revitalization is a must if indeed there is a commitment to monitor the “petty kings” in the regions.



Compared to KPK, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) has an apparent weakness, which is its obligation to request permission from the government to investigate a governor or regent. And it requires yet another permission to name them suspects. It’s a very complicated bureaucracy.

Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) has urged the House of Representatives to reduce the complexity in the Law on Structure and Status. In addition, regulations on local officials in the Laws on Local Governments should also be revised by the House. That is if indeed the House is  committed to wipe out corruptions.

Eradicating corruption requires more than just law enforcement. This is not enough. Prevention is equally important. An important factor in wiping put corruption in local and central levels is the monitoring of the local budget management.

The current monitoring system, starting from internal monitoring and the Local Monitoring Agency (Bawasda), is ineffective since they are not supported by a strong system. Not infrequently these agencies become the barriers to sanction implementations.

The solution is, again, back to the AGO. This institution should be revitalized as soon as possible. In addition, the bureaucracy reform program issued by the National Development Planning/National Development Planning Agency and the State Ministry for the Empowerment of the State Apparatus can be executed.
Indonesia does need an external monitoring agency. This should be an independent entity, similar to the Judicial Commission—prior to the elimination of some of its authority—in monitoring the judicial sector.

However, this will take a significant amount of time. At this point, it is much better to maximize existing institutions, starting with the KPK, the AGO, and so on.            


This article is based on an interview with Febri Diansyah, a researcher at the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW).

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Translated by: Edwin Solahuddin

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VIVA.co.id
28 Maret 2024