March 14, 2017 edition

A week after he was sworn in as human resources assistant to the national police chief, Insp.Gen. Arief Sulistyanto took the oath of the job to vet middle-ranking officers and select police recruits. For the first time in the history of the Bhayangkara Corps (Police Force), they were asked to swear not to commit corruption, collusion and nepotism. Arief implemented this routine at every recruitment and selection of police officers. "We are limited in how we can properly monitor human character," said Arief, 51, who was appointed to his new job by Police Chief Gen. Tito Karnavian, last February 14.

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March 7, 2017 edition

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February 28, 2017 edition

ARIF Budi Sulistyo, the brother-in-law of President Joko Widodo, was mentioned in the indictment of Ramapanicker Rajamohan Nair, in a bribery case involving Handang Soekarno, sub-directorate chief in charge of law enforcement at the directorate-general of taxes. Arif is suspected of lobbying tax officials to erase the tax obligations and penalties of EK Prima Ekspor Indonesia, the company owned by Rajamohan, who had his first session in court two weeks ago.

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February 21, 2017 edition

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February 14, 2017 edition

The plan of Constitutional Court Chief Justice Arief Hidayat, 61, to take some days off in his hometown of Semarang three weeks ago, was not to be. When he landed at Ahmad Yani Airport that Thursday morning, he was all set to go teach at the 17 Agustus 1945 University in the city. But a telephone call from Jakarta made him turn around and fly right back to Jakarta. But not before a journalist gave him the shock of his life, when he was asked to comment on a news report that the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) had arrested one of his judges.
That evening, back in Jakarta, Arief received confirmation that Patrialis Akbar, one of the Constitutional Court judges, had indeed been arrested. The charge against Patrialis was bribery involving a judicial review of Law No. 41/2014 on Livestock and Animal Health. Patrialis, who was justice and human rights minister from 2009 to 2011, was also accused of leaking the results of the judicial review, to Basuki Hariman, a beef trader who is suspected of bribing the judge. "Here we go again, another blunder," said Arief. This is the second time Arief has gone through such an incident. The first case involved Akil Mochtar, his predecessor, who was accused of accepting a bribe over a dispute on the results of the regional chief executives' elections in 2013.

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February 7, 2017 edition

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January 31, 2017 edition

When he was still the inspector-general at the Ministry of Finance three months ago, Kiagus Ahmad Badaruddin, 59, was angered by a report on a sum of Rp3 billion that had been deposited into his wife's account. It shook him, particularly since he was being considered for the position of chairman of the Center for Financial Transactions Reporting and Analysis (PPATK).
That report spread to the Presidential Palace and to the finance ministry. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani, who recommended Badaruddin to be PPATK chief, took a deeper look at the report. "She asked me what the money was all about," recounted Badaraddin, or Badar as he is familiarly known.

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