Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) has reported that of the 550 cases of graft that entered the investigation phase in 2015, 308 cases are now in the first semester and 242 cases are in the second half of the year.
While presenting data about corruption cases being handled here on Wednesday, ICW Investigation Division Staff Wana Alamsyah said in 2015, the losses accrued to the state as a result of graft amounted to Rp31.077 trillion, largely attributed to misuse of funds.
"In 134 cases, that formed 24 percent of the total cases, the modus operandi used was misuse of official funds, causing a total loss of Rp803.3 billion to the state," he said.
Second method that was widely used was embezzlement. That happened in 107 cases, causing total losses of Rp412.4 billion, followed by 104 cases in which cost was marked up, causing losses of Rp455 billion.
Abuse of authority was the fourth main method used in 102 cases, in which the state suffered losses of Rp991.8 billion.
According to Wana, corruption practices were more prevalent in the provincial financial sectors with 105 cases and Rp385.5 billion worth of losses.
Most of the corruption suspects were ministerial and local government officials, directors and commissioners of private companies, heads of agencies, members of the House of Representatives (DPR) and Regional Representatives Assembly (DPRD), as well as the village heads or chiefs.
Referring to the handling of corruption cases by law enforcement officials, ICW mentioned that the attorney was handling as many as 369 cases or 67.4 percent of the cases with total losses of Rp1.2 trillion, the police were handling 151 cases or 27 percent with Rp1.1 trillion losses, and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) was managing 30 cases or 5 percent with a total of Rp722.6 billion as losses incurred by the state.
Meanwhile, Deputy Director of the Corruption Division at the National Police detective corps, Sr. Comr. Erwanto Kurniadi, refuted the data compiled by ICW, saying the number of cases handled by the police was more than what had been reported.
"In 2015, we handled as many as 972 graft cases which had completed the P21 stage, involving total losses to the state worth Rp437 billion," he stated.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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