KPK to Speed Up Settlement of Cases

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) will speed up the settlement of cases after conducting internal consolidation following the appointment of three acting commissioners, KPK deputy chief commissioner Johan Budi said here on Wednesday.

"Trust me, the KPK will move on and speed up like before. The word speed up has never been uttered lately. After recovering from a number of recent incidents that drained the KPKs leadership as well as other elements in the institution of much energy and slowing it down, the anti-graft will now move on to handle pending cases and carry out prevention programs that have been launched so far," he stated.

During January and February, the KPK remained weak, as its chief commissioner Abraham Samad and deputy commissioner Bambang Widjojanto were named suspects by the police and the term of another deputy chief, Busyro Muqoddas, expired leaving only two deputy chief commissioners, Zulkarnain and Adnan Pandu Praja, to lead the institution.

On February 18, President Joko Widodo appointed Taufiqurrahman Ruki, Indriyanto Seno Adji, and Johan Budi as acting chief commissioner and deputy chief commissioners, respectively, to fill the vacancies.

Although Taufiqurrahman Ruki noted that the KPK still ran at a level-2 speed, Johan remarked the KPK can run at level 5 after the internal consolidation.

"Speed 2 is for ascending and after that we can use speed 4 to 5 depending on the engines strength, meaning whether it will break down or not. Let us wait. You must not judge the KPK based on who we catch. Saving natural resources, which may add Rp10 trillion to the states income, is also a part of the KPKs job," he explained.

Johan admitted there has been a change in the distribution of jobs after the recent incidents. "The first has been filling vacancies in structural posts in several directorates and bureaus. We have put personnel in other posts besides including probe officers, investigators, and non-investigating officials. We will also recruit new personnel," he added.

According to Johan, the KPK will focus on settling 36 cases that are still under investigation. "At this early stage since our appointment, we have to conduct a road show and carry out enforcement and prevention in the midst of a number of pretrial suits that have forced us to send 10 prosecutors to assist in the legal bureau," he pointed out.

He admitted that the flow of pretrial suits have changed the KPKs focus. The KPK is currently facing five pretrial suits after it lost the case of former national police chief candidate Commissioner General Budi Gunawan. (WDY)