TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A tender process for the supply of motor vehicles to the National Police Traffic Division ended in court. The funding system for the police must be reformed.

The problem that arose with the tender process for the supply of motor vehicles to the national police traffic division is only the tip of the iceberg of poor funding management in the institution. After the corruption case over the supply of driving permit licensed simulators in 2011, it seems that the police are still reluctant to put their house in order.

This time, the national police traffic division has been sued at the Jakarta state administrative court over the tender for the supply of 250 1,200cc BMW motorbikes. Three companies responded to the tender last year, but only two submitted written bids. Graha Qinthar Abadi submitted a bid of Rp149.95 billion and Digital Praja Makayasa bid Rp145 billion. Strangely, the traffic division chose Graha Qinthar Abadi despite this company putting in a higher bid than its competitor.

Digital Praja Makayasa tried to change this decision through the courts. Unfortunately, at the beginning of this year, the panel of judges at the Jakarta State Administrative Court rejected Digital Praja Makayasa's complaint. The judges ignored a large quantity of evidence that backed the charge that the tender process was fixed, such as the changes of requirement in mid-process and the product specification that was designed to fit a particular brand.

Another important fact that the judges ignored was the track record of Graha Qinthar Abadi with the traffic police. The company has been a supplier to the police in a number of projects amounting to tens of billions of rupiah. Since 2017, Graha Qinthar Abadi has won a series of tenders for the traffic division. It appears that the company is able to supply anything that the police needs, from support equipment for the national police traffic management center to motorbikes. This alone should have been enough to trigger an internal investigation within the National Police.

The problem is that the traffic division is one of the largest sources of non-tax revenues for the National Police. Most of these revenues come from the management of vehicle documentation, such as vehicle ownership documents, vehicle registration documents and driving licenses. Last year alone, the finance ministry returned 92 percent of these non-tax revenues back to the police, totaling almost Rp11.79 trillion. This is approximately 12 percent of the total police funding in 2018, which was Rp95 trillion.

It is these funds that were later used to cover the costs of procurement of goods for the traffic division. Governmental regulation No. 73/1999 on the Usage of Non-tax Revenues from Particular Activities does not prohibit this, as long as the funds are paid in first to state coffers. But clearly funding management principals are breached if a government institution can use almost all of the income it obtains from activities for its own needs. This could lead to resentment both within the police as well as with other government institutions.

It is time that President Joko Widodo and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani reformed the management of funding, especially the rules governing non-tax revenues, within the National Police. The management of vehicle documentation, for example, is clearly outside the remit of the police. This could be handed over to regional governments, to allow the police to concentrate on their major main duty as law enforcers. Without fundamental changes, the chaos in police funding will continue, and the aim of ridding the police of corruption will always difficult to achieve.

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