Study Program of Master in Accounting (MAKSI) Faculty of Economics and Business UGM held a Public Lecture on Forensic Auditing on Friday, 31 March 2023. The public lecture entitled “The Ins and Outs of Investigating Indonesian Fraud Cases – The Role of the Prosecutor’s Office in Recovering State Losses in Corruption Crimes” was held via Zoom Meeting and broadcast directly via the Master of Accounting FEB UGM Youtube channel. The resource person for this public lecture was Abvianto Syaifullah, S.H., M.H., the Investigating Attorney at the Republic of Indonesia’s Attorney General’s Office. He explained his presentation regarding the role of the prosecutor’s office in law enforcement, especially corruption in the context of returning state assets.
In his presentation, Abvi said corruption is an extraordinary crime. Corruption is carried out in a systematic, organized, massive manner, which is related to power and is detrimental to state finances. Corruption is formed by manipulating regulations conditioned by state administrators. “Corruption in bidding for road projects, for example, is regulated by making contractors who do not work with them appear as if they do not meet the bidding requirements so they cannot win the project. It causes state losses, and where corruption occurs,” he said, based on his experience handling cases.
Procedures for handling corruption cases at the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of Indonesia usually start with reports of complaints by the public. Furthermore, an investigation will be held to ascertain whether there are irregularities in an incident reported. If unlawful acts are found, the report will go up to the investigation stage to collect evidence that will lead to the determination of the suspect. Then, the file will be submitted to the court for trial. The final stage is the execution of the sentence by the public prosecutor based on the execution order. “The procedure for handling corruption cases at the Attorney General’s Office is not much different from that of the police and the KPK,” he explained.
The Corruption Perceptions Index score fell from 38 in 2018 to 34 in 2022. In terms of ranking, it decreased from 89th in 2018 to 110th out of 180 countries in 2022. Apart from this, in the Corruption Eradication Annual Report in 2022, Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) stated that the performance of the prosecutor’s office in recovering state losses was quite good. The Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of Indonesia has succeeded in handling 405 of 597 corruption cases in 2022, with a state loss of 39.207 trillion out of a total of 42.747 trillion. In general, the Attorney General’s Office, the Police, and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) have experienced an increase in the number of cases handled in 2022. The prosecutor’s rank is the highest, from 371 cases in 2021 to 405 cases in 2022.
Abvi revealed several obstacles in dealing with corruption, such as resistance from third parties to the prosecutor in trying to confiscate and confiscate assets, the difficulty of obtaining permission to conduct searches from the court, and the increasingly creative acts of corruption at this time. In addition, corruption suspects and convicts generally do not admit their actions in court, so handling cases is quite tiring and requires the assistance of many experts. Therefore, there is a need for collaboration between the police and the prosecutor’s office to exchange information about handling corruption.
In tackling corruption, it was currently taking into account the impact on the country’s economy that arises, different from before, which only focused on losses to state finances. Throughout 2022, the Attorney General’s Office has managed to break a record for state losses and state economic losses of up to 142 trillion rupiahs in handling corruption cases. “The most important thing for us as law enforcers in dealing with corruption is not to let this country deal with corruption by spending money but not getting state losses,” he explained. The public lecture was followed by a question and answer session, which the participants enthusiastically welcomed.
Reportage: Adella Wahyu Pradita
