TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:The revocation of 20 police investigators from their cases was a bitter pill for the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to swallow. Cases have been left unsettled as a result of the abrupt steps taken by the Indonesian National Police Headquarters. To avoid constant dependency on other institutions, the KPK should start recruiting its own investigators. The maneuver by police could have a major impact on the antigraft commission’s performance. Each investigator generally handles two to three cases. The recall will leave dozens of cases uninvestigated. The remaining investigators, some 50 of them, will be overwhelmed if they are to take over the cases left by the previous investigators. Although the police have vowed to dispatch substitutes, the KPK’s performance will still be disrupted because the new investigators will need time to study their assigned cases. It is hard not to connect the dots between the steps taken by the police and the KPK’s effort to investigate a case involving a project to procure driver’s license simulators, which implicates several police generals. Since the beginning, the police seem to have been trying to stall the KPK’s effort to expose the case. The recall may also slow the investigation of other major cases such as the Hambalang project graft scandal and the National Sports Week (PON) case in Riau. That is why it is important for the antigraft commission to have its own investigators. Law No. 30/2002 on the Antigraft Commission does not require the institution to employ investigators from the police. Article 45 of the law states that investigators are appointed and dismissed by the KPK. That means the commission has the authority to recruit its own investigators. In other words, investigator recruitment by the KPK does not depend on the law being revised. The Criminal Code indeed only acknowledges investigators who are members of the police, attorney general’s office, and civil investigators. However, the KPK is not always bound to comply with the Criminal Code because the institution is based on a separate law. The KPK Law clearly states that the commission will refer to the Criminal Code for matters that are not specified by the law, such as on the procedures for confiscation and suspect arrest. However, in terms of recruitment, the KPK has full authority. If the investigator recruitment process takes too long, the KPK can take a shortcut by cooperating with government ministries. Some ministries such as the Finance Ministry have their own civil investigators (PPNS). These investigators might be able to help the KPK. Such a breakthrough will run smoothly if the House of Representatives (DPR) and the government support the effort—investigators’ salaries are allocated from the state budget—unless the KPK is given the authority to reallocate salaries that were to be paid to the recalled investigators to the newly recruited officers. Only by having its own investigators or by recruiting civil investigators will the KPK be less dependent on other institutions, especially the police. This will also boost the commission’s independence when the KPK encounters obstacles in investigating graft cases implicating the police.