Universitas Gadjah Mada’s economist, Dr. Rimawan Pradiptyo, M.Sc., made criticism on the massive social costs demanded of people due to verdicts sentencing corruptors to return much less amount of fund from the total amount that has been corrupted.
Rimawan’s research showed that some Rp73.07 trillion was corrupted by 540 corruptors in 2008, but prosecutors charged only Rp32.41 trillion. The majority of those convicted have appealed to the Supreme Court and the Court decided that only Rp5.32 trillion should be returned to the state.
“Can you imagine that only 7.29% of fund should be returned to the state? Who will pay damages amounting to Rp73.07 trillion? Definitely, the people who are good taxpayers,†said Rimawan in a monthly seminar “Social Cost of Corruption: Estimate and Implementation,†on Thursday (25/2) at the Center for Economic Democracy Studies, UGM.
It is even more unfortunate, Rimawan said, that the verdicts handed out to convicted corrupters are usually less than 10 year sentence. These will obviously not make corrupters scared. They only need to return 7% of the fund. “Their orientation is money, so it will create maximum impact if verdicts make corrupters poor,†he explained.
According to Rimawan, seen from economic principles, Indonesian legal system is still irrational. To make this rational, the ideal value of fines is adjusted to the social costs caused by the crime. “To make it rational, the value of the fine is not explicitly stated in the laws but changed with the value of fine as regulated in the Government Regulation,†he said. He added that confiscation of suspicuous assets is made possible by presumption of liability principle.