Abstract

One of the most common forms of corruption in society is illegal levies (pungli). The current phenomenon of illegal levies does not only occur in the formal government bureaucratic environment, but also begins to penetrate into the structure of indigenous communities that have high social and religious power. Customary villages, as customary law entities recognized by the state, often have devices that carry out government functions based on local traditions and culture. The author uses normative legal research with a legislative approach. The results of this study show that the Customary Village Act of collecting a sum of money from business actors in the name of "punia funds", without a valid legal basis, can meet the elements of abuse of authority as known in the criminal act of office. The deviation of authority by the Customary Village is a manifestation of the failure of the application of rational-legal bureaucracy, where the authority given to regulate and serve the community is used arbitrarily for personal interests. In this case, the Customary Village is considered as a state administrator because it has the power to run the customary government, which according to the Supreme Court and the Corruption Law has been expanded to include everyone who carries out public functions and receives funds or facilities from the state or society. The legal construction in the verdict on illegal levy corruption by the Customary Village also emphasizes the importance of integration between national law and customary law. In practice, customary law has locally binding powers, but when used to justify actions against national law, the superiority of positive law still applies.