JAKARTA. The Supreme Court will soon release a regulation on imposing criminal sanction against corporation – not only the director or management of the corporation– that involves in corruption case.
According to Vice Chairman of Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), who is also head of the regulation drafting team Laode Muhammad Syarif the new regulation is now being drafted by KPK and Supreme Court. “The draft will be presented at Supreme Court office on 22 September”, Laode said.
The new Supreme Court Regulation on Corporate Criminal Responsibility will specify the definition of corporation. According to the draft of the regulation, a ‘corporation’ is an organization with legal status. Under this definition, a political party will be subject to the regulation.
In addition to definition of corporation, the regulation will provide special articles on conducting inquiry over a corporation that involves in a corruption case, including certain party that represents the corporation, responsibility mechanism in the corporate, and procedure for assets confiscation.
The Supreme Court regulation will also specify judicial procedure on corruption case that involves corporate as the subject.
Supreme Court Judge Surya Jaya said that the regulation is formulated based on the Law No 20/2001 on Corruption Eradication. Article 20 of the Law on Corruption Eradication stipulates that in the event that corruption is committed by or on behalf of a corporation, prosecution and sentencing may be conducted against the corporation and/or its managers. However, the principal criminal law sanction on corporation is only a fine.
Researcher of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) Lalola Easter said that the regulation drafting is a progress on national corruption eradication. Currently, Indonesia has less regulation on corporation responsibility, including in corruption case.
Therefore until now KPK has never criminalized corporation that involves in corruption case, whereas KPK has dealt with many corruption cases that were actually involving corporations. For an example, the bribery case related to local bill on North Jakarta coast reclamation that involved President Director of PT Agung Podomoro Land Tbk Ariesman Wijaya.
It is predictable that businessmen are less enthusiastic in responding the Supreme Court regulation. According to Chairman of Indonesian Employers Association Hariyadi B. Sukamdani, businessmen worry that the regulation may be misused to confiscate corporation assets. (Translator: Muhammad Farid)
