You cannot hunt for rats by burning down the granary,' KPK says

KASUS SUAP MEIKARTA - JAKARTA. The national antigraft agency said the Lippo Group has not been implicated in a case involving subsidiary, Mahkota Sentosa Utama, in the alleged bribery of district officials in Bekasi, West Java, to obtain permits for the latter's Meikarta flagship property development in Cikarang.

"The parent [group] has no business in this case," Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairman Alexander Marwata said on Thursday.

"You cannot hunt for rats by burning down the granary. You just close the rat hole," Alex said.

The KPK questioned prominent businessman James Riady as a witness on Tuesday, at which time he pledged his support and full cooperation in the investigation.

Alex said companies often complain to the KPK about difficulties in obtaining permits and that some are pushed to a point where they feel there is no other option but to pay extortion fees to obtain the required documents.

For this reason, the KPK will focus on improving aspects of the bureaucracy in the region, particularly in Bekasi district, he added.

"The paradigm is far different now. The president himself has ordered the process of obtaining permits to be made easier, not more complicated," he said, referring to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's ambition of Indonesia joining the top 40 nations in the World Bank's annual Ease of Doing Business ranking by 2019.

Alex said the KPK would not shut down Meikarta despite the ongoing investigation, thereby ensuring that construction of the project continues.

Moreover, the agency also took into consideration the fact that there are already thousands of people, including paying customers, looking forward to acquiring new apartments in the megacity development.

"Regarding the project development, it must go on," Alex said.

"We cannot stop the construction as we know that there are many people involved in the development process. This is a legal case that is separate from the project. What happened was that there were bribes [to get the required] permits, not that the project itself [is illegal]," he added.

There is precedence to this case. In the Hambalang Sports Center corruption case involving senior members of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, the KPK did not shut down the project either, Alex said.

"We didn't seal off Hambalang; if they [Meikarta] want to continue, just continue," he said firmly.

Alex said businessmen such as James Riady regularly meet with government officials and that such meetings were neither unusual nor illegal, even if they involved discussions on business licenses.

"I think if he only met [with officials] and discussed only projects in Bekasi district, there is nothing wrong. The meeting itself is not prohibited," the KPK deputy chairman said.

When questioned by KPK investigators on Tuesday, James admitted openly that he had met with Bekasi district head Neneng Hassanah Yasin, who has, along with several other district officials and a an alleged MSU representative, been named suspects in the case.

James said he only met with her once to congratulate her after she had just given birth last year.

The KPK said it would not question James any further, nor confront him with Neneng about their meeting as the latter confirmed James's account.

"We would only question them together if there was conflicting information. If everything checks out, we do not need to confront them," Alex said.

However, he said the KPK was still investigating to determine the source of the money allegedly used to bribe the Bekasi officials. Alex was reluctant to reveal whether the funds originated from the company or not.

"This is what investigators must explore. The investigators are surely looking into the source of the money," Alex said.