The electronic ID’s (e-KTP) procurement project is Indonesia's largest corruption case, which has cost up to Rp2.3 trillion. The project was rolled out by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2011 which was led by Gemawan Fauzi, with a total budget of Rp5.9 trillion in the financing process.
At that time (June 2011), the tender for procurement of e-KTP was won by the consortium of PT Percetakan Negara Republik Indonesia (PNRI). The consortium consists of Perum PNRI, PT Sucofindo, PT Sandhipala Arthapura, PT Len Industri, and PT Quadra Solution as a hardware and software provider (bbc).
The first time this project game smelled as corruption when the Government's Goods / Services Supervisory Agency (LKPP) suspected administrative misuse with the money being distributed. In September 2012, the Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) also captured irregularities in the tender process.
The suspects
The big names are directly defined as the defendant namely, former Director of Information Administration Information Administration of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Sugiharto and former Director General of Population and Civil Registration Ministry of Home Affairs, Irman.
The case of this procurement mega project dragged a number of big names as the mastermind of budget embezzlement as well as the big people who were dragged into it as the person receiving the percentage of the project's funds. The well-known names in the indictment of the Public Prosecutor also shocked the public.
Starting from Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo, who was then a member of the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission-II, until Menkumham Yasonna Laoly, who previously also sat on the same commission, is said to take bribes in cases of alleged corruption e-KTP.
Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has also examined 19 politicians who served as representatives of the people in the House of Representatives in the period 2011-2012. Among them Chairuman Harahap who was then chairman of the commission II (government commission DPR) and Setya Novanto, who was then occupied as the position of chairman of the Golkar Party faction. Setya Novanto (Setnov) has been named as a suspect by the KPK since the beginning of July 2017.
Besides Setya Novanto, two former Democratic Party politicians Anas Urbaningrum and Muhammad Nazarudin, who are being held in other corruption cases, are also mentioned in the indictment as the most dominant defendant governing all this corruption.
How did it happen?
Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) through Febri Diyansyah as the KPK spokesman (The Jakarta Post on March 2017), suspect the deviation is applied in 3 stages:
- Informal meetings
"First, at the budget discussion stage, before the formal budget, we find indications of meetings by some parties to discuss this e-KTP project," Febri said.
The meeting is held outside the agenda and should be suspicious. The discussion at the informal meeting is related to the amount of budget and percentage earned by each management.
- The practice of debt bondage (ijon)
"The second is certainly the stage of budget discussions involving a number of members of the House (DPR) and also the elements of government there. Now in these two early stages, we find an indication called the practice of ijon in quotes," said Febri.
After informal meetings, the discussion was brought to a larger and wider domain involving a number of the House of Representatives members for the period 2009-2014, the House Budgetary Agency, and the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Ijon in the political context here is a budget that is done in the beginning, before the project is there, such as "ask for the money first, then the project will follow".
- Procurement
Indonesian Corruption Watch researcher, Tama Langkun, said that there are two peculiarities of the procurement process of e-KTP:
First about the signature pad that changes after the tender is closed, this is not in accordance with Article 79 paragraph 2 of Perpres no. 54 of 2010 which prohibits post bidding - the act of altering, supplementing, altering and/or reducing procurement documents and/or bidding documents after the deadline for submission of bids.
Second, Gemawan Fauzi then Minister of Home Affairs, signed an e-KTP procurement contract during a tender process so that two other consortiums (Telkom & Lintas Bumi Lestari) were not given a chance, whereas the Government Procurement Policy Institution (LKPP) has warned against Article 92 of Perpres 54 of 2010 that refutation appeals to stop the auction process, and should be signed after the end of the appeal.
The losses of e-KTP corruption
This time the KPK is not only seeing the impact of corruption from the legal aspects but from the economic side as well. Although Setya Novanto's determination as a corruption procurement project based on e-KTP is predicted not to disturb the performance of the capital market. Therefore, no issuer is directly involved in the case. However, the other possibility is macroeconomically, unstable political conditions will produce a comparable economy.
Selection Committee's Chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission, Destry Damayanti, in 2015 said once that every 1 rank increase in corruption perception index, economic growth could fall to 0.9 percent. This is very dangerous for the country. At that time (2014) Indonesia's position was ranked 107th (riset.ti.or.id). As a result, investor confidence is declining to invest in Indonesia. Ironically, there is also the potential for corruption involving foreign companies.
This compares to a corruption index in some countries by 2014
Total losses of the State of Rp2,3 trillion, the KPK announced that Rp250 billion has been returned to the State by 5 corporations, 1 consortium, and 14 people.
Sources: Medium, BBC, AsiaTimes, The Jakarta Post, Seword, Rappler, kpk.go.id, antikorupsi.org, Corruption Perception Index, transparency.org