Corruptive behavior of the heads of local governments in Indonesia

Corruption occurs at all levels of governance in Indonesia, including both central and local governments. In particular, corruptive behavior at the local level has involved either executive or legislative officials, who, ironically, have mostly implicated executive heads in some local governments. As a matter of fact, studies regarding discretion as a factor that may cause corruption have rarely been conducted. Therefore, this paper attempts to highlight how the corruptive behavior of the regional heads in Indonesia is mainly related to their discretionary powers. To achieve the objectives, this study involves case studies on five corruption cases handled by the country's Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) that were legally binding. The results show that those corruptions have occurred as a result of democratic sociological factors, which may relate to the cost of local elections, a significant number of requests for financial assistance from constituents and a lack of capacity of the heads of regions under observation. Practically, the corruptive behavior appears to be conducted by abusing one's authority for personal gain. Therefore, the behavior occurs not as a result of discretion despite the existence of some aspects relating to discretion.