JakartaPost-May 9, 2025
The revision of the State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Law has recently been under spotlight after several articles were found to potentially limit the Corruption Eradication Commission’s (KPK) authority to launch graft investigations into state-owned businesses and their managements. The law revision, which was not included in the list of bills prioritized by the House of Representatives this year, was previously criticized after being passed in February following a rushed deliberation by lawmakers. Recently, observers highlighted that the new SOEs Law raised concerns that the KPK, the country’s leading antigraft body, may not be able to launch investigations into SOEs or their directors and commissioners. Article 3X and 9G of the new law stipulates that employees, directors, commissioners and supervisory board members of SOEs are not considered state officials. Meanwhile, Article 4B states that financial losses endured by SOEs are to be considered corporate rather than state losses. The explanation part of the law asserts that the losses are seen as the firm’s losses even when the capital is sourced from state funds. According to the 2019 KPK Law, among the antigraft body’s authorities are prosecuting “law enforcement officers, state officials and any person related to them” or investigating cases that “incur at least Rp 1 billion [US$60,545] in state losses”. The new SOEs Law also serves as the legal basis for the establishment of Danantara, which was launched by President Prabowo Subianto on Feb. 24 despite growing concerns from antigraft activists over the lack of an oversight body for the country’s sovereign wealth fund and weakening corruption oversight by other institutions, including the KPK and the Financial Supervisory Body (BPK). The new provisions in the revised SOEs Law are “a step backward” in the country’s effort to eradicate corruption for creating loopholes to evade prosecution, according to Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) researcher Yassar Aulia. Read more at:
https://www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/2025/05/09/soes-law-raises-graft-oversight-concerns.html.
