Corruption of the Passport Issuance’s Payment Gateway

Electronic payment was initially made to offer an alternative to the complicated and time-consuming traditional methods. Hence, Vice Minister of Law and Human Rights Denny Indrayana offered an online system called the online gateway to be implemented in the e-passport issuance back in June 2014. Unfortunately, the project didn’t end good, as it was suspected of bringing up to Rp 32 billion of damage to the country’s balance.

According to a report by CNN Indonesia, ex-Minister of Law and Human Rights Amir Syamsuddin explained that the root of this payment gateway procurement was the pressure by the Presidential Working Unit on Development Supervision and Control (UKP4) indicating that the Ministry should upgrade their public services.

Syamsuddin said, “If we didn’t do that, we’d get a bad remark. That’s why we implemented that payment gateway.”

According to him, this concept came from the Vice Minister, Denny Indrayana, who described about the concept and presented video consists of the confession of people with positive track record regarding the benefits of payment gateway in passport issuance management.

Unfortunately, although Indrayana claimed that the concept has been legally certified and regulated, the Minister of Finance sent a letter to the Ministry of Law and Human Rights on July 11, 2014 stating that the concept had yet got any legal certification since it is classified as Non-Tax National Revenue. Thus, Syamsuddin decided to officially shut the program immediately. “But the program was fully stopped in October,” he admitted.

After the program was shut, the problem remained. The police suspected that the program was a disguise to hide corruption practices. Anton Charliyan, Polri’s Head of PR Division, even claimed that the program brought up to Rp 32 billion of damage to the country.

“The sum was as big as thirty two billion ninety three million six hundred and ninety two thousand rupiah,” Charliyan told Kompas.

Moreover, the police also suspected the practice of illegal extortion which resulted on Rp 605 million of illegal money which was saved in an account outside the terms. The account was also suspected to be the modus of the corruption.

Indrayana didn’t do any self-defense regarding this matter, even though his name was involved in the investigation. According to him, instead of damaging the country’s balance, the program gave Rp 32,4 billion of profit to the country.

He said, “A report by BPK in December 2014 stating that the program gave Rp 32,4 billion of profit. It means that the country got Rp 32,4 billion, not sucking its profit.”

He also stated that the program was done to switch the traditional passport issuance method with the newer one which is easier and simpler, as the manual method is highly vulnerable to long line and illegal extortion.

“It’s changed to online to enable people paying via ATM, credit card, SMS banking, e-banking, and others,” he told Jawa Pos.

Zainal Arifin Mochtar, Gadjah Mada University’s Director of the Anti-Corruption Center, stated that the case involving Denny Indrayana wasn’t a corruption case. In his opinion, Indrayana has made an innovation in payment method. Regarding the Rp 5.000 of fee which is implemented to every payment gateway user, he claimed that it’s merely a consequence, since the program partners with various parties. The service was also merely an option out of many other.

As the case has yet met any resolution, it may create a domino effect. As we know that digital payment issue, in this case the payment gateway, has yet comfortably claimed its place among the citizens. In fact, COD is still people’s favorite when it comes to pay e-commerce services.

With this particular case, people’s trust may grow to a more negative trend. It’s not good to e-commerce players and related industries. Let’s just hope that it would find its end pretty soon.