Procurement bribery costs the country Rp 36t yearly

NUSA DUA, Bali (Jakarta Post): Procurement bribery at government offices makes up the bulk of graft cases in Indonesia and reportedly costs it Rp 36 trillion (US$3.9 billion) a year, a top anticorruption official said Monday.

"Procurement is one of the areas most prone to corruption. Around 70 percent of the cases handled by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) are mark-ups for procurements," KPK chairman Taufiequrrachman Ruki told reporters at a media conference after the opening of a regional seminar on Fighting against Bribery in Public Procurement in Nusa Dua, Bali.

The KPK has received 16,000 reports of cases but it able to process only a few dozen, he said.

Taufiequrrachman said that the government lost around Rp 36 trillion (US$3.9 billion) each year because of corruption in public procurement.(Irawaty Wardany)