Candidates Call for Special KPK Teams to Investigate Tax Evasion, Budget Planning
Jakarta. The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) must establish a special team to investigate tax evasion cases, a candidate vying for a top post at the agency has suggested.
Another candidate wants a dedicated team to monitor how governments budget and spend taxpayers' money.
“The KPK has to establish a task force or a special division to handle tax cases,” said activist and academic Laode Muhammad Syarief, arguing that graft and tax evasion are two sides of the same coin.
“There is a lot of corruption in the taxation sector,” Laode said.
Former Constitutional Court chief Jimly Asshiddiqie also wants a dedicated KPK team if he is elected, but one that monitors how governments budget and spend their coffers.
“We have to pay special attention toward budget planning,” he said, arguing that 30 percent of taxpayers' money is lost each year on the budget planning stage.
“Planning is the first step taken for people with ill intentions," Jimly said. “Planning can be engineered. We tend to think if a budget plan is passed into law, it means it’s all legit.”
Laode and Jimly are among the 19 people from different walks of life who are eyeing four of the five commissioner posts at the KPK.
The candidates underwent a three-day interview process before an all female ad-hoc committee tasked with vetting candidates. The process ended on Wednesday.
The selection committee will shortlist eight names to be submitted to President Joko Widodo on Aug. 31.
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