Fluctuations in the Enforcement of Corruption Cases by Law Enforcement Officials

The Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) recorded that 252 corruption cases were handled by Law Enforcement Agencies (APH) in the first half of 2022. This falls short of the target of 1,387 cases for the same period.

Observing the semesterly trend each year, corruption case enforcement decreased in the first half of 2019. Otherwise, handling of cases has increased. However, this increase must also be viewed in light of the consistently increasing number of target cases and the value of losses each year.

"This indicates that government budget management each year is increasingly poor in terms of oversight," wrote the ICW in its report.

In the first half of 2018, 139 cases were handled, involving 587 suspects. In the first half of 2019, this number dropped to 122 cases with 351 suspects.

In the first half of 2020, the number of cases reached 169 with 250 suspects. In the first half of 2021, the number increased to 209 cases involving 482 suspects. Finally, in the first half of 2022, 252 cases were handled with 612 suspects.

The ICW assesses that in law enforcement, there are still policies that are not pro-anticorruption, failure to uphold good governance principles, rampant conflicts of interest, transactional politics, and the use of legal instruments to repress critical voices.

Corruption Potential in 2023

The ICW mentions that in the last three years, several dominant and new corruption methods have emerged, including budget misuse, fictitious projects, embezzlement, markups, bribery, and stock manipulation or exploitation of the capital market. In terms of sectors, several sectors remain vulnerable to corruption.

"Sectors providing public services such as education, health, and food are potentially continuously vulnerable," said the ICW.

The ICW adds that another equally vulnerable sector deserving attention is village funds. It argues that this sector is the most frequently targeted for corruption, coinciding with the increase in its budget.

For 2023, the ICW predicts that corruption through stock manipulation or exploitation of the capital market will increase.

This is consistent with the 2022 findings of the Indonesian Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK), which reported 1,215 reports of suspicious financial transactions totaling Rp 183.8 trillion. Of this total, more than Rp 81.3 trillion is suspected to originate from corruption.

"PPATK analysis also found that the most common methods used to accommodate funds suspected to be the proceeds of corruption include foreign exchange conversion, capital market instruments, and the purchase of insurance policies," said the ICW.