Officials' assets audit staff named<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The House of Representatives approved on
\nThursday the candidates for the 45-member Audit Commission on
\nOfficials' Assets for ratification by the President.<\/p>\n
But both the procedure in which the decision was taken and the
\nintegrity and competence of several of the endorsed candidates
\nwere immediately questioned by House members and analysts.<\/p>\n
Several legislators questioned the validity of the plenary
\nsession, which made the decision, due to the small number of
\nlegislators attending.<\/p>\n
Only 58 of the House members attended the entire session, even
\nthough 335 legislators initially attended the meeting and signed
\nthe attendance registration book.<\/p>\n
However, House Deputy Speaker Tosari Wijaya, who chaired the
\nplenary session, declared the decision valid, arguing that more
\nthan half of the House members attended when the meeting was
\nopened.<\/p>\n
"According to the House's internal regulations, the decision
\ncould be considered valid," Tosari asserted in reply to an
\ninterruption by legislator Ignatius Mulyono, who questioned the
\nvalidity of the decision.<\/p>\n
However several other legislators urged Tosari to continue the
\nsession, saying that it was legal according to the regulations.<\/p>\n
Legislator Suratal of the Indonesian Democratic Party of
\nStruggle (PDI Perjuangan), said that many House members had to
\nleave the session midway to attend other important hearings.<\/p>\n
The integrity and competence of several names in the list of
\ncandidates, including "demonstration leader" Eggi Sudjana and
\nchairman of the Indonesian Journalists' Association (PWI) Tarman
\nAzzam, were questioned.<\/p>\n
At least 20 journalists signed "a protest letter", urging the
\nHouse not to include Tarman, who is a Golkar Party activist, in
\nthe commission.<\/p>\n
Ferry, who is chairman of the House's Commission II special
\nworking committee, admitted that several groups have presented
\ntheir objections over the names but he insisted that all the
\ncandidates had been subjected to a thorough fit-and-proper test.<\/p>\n
He said the commission, which will be set up as part of a
\nprogram to develop good governance, should submit quarterly
\nreports on its work to the House and the President.<\/p>\n
Among the 45 names are former chairwoman of the Indonesian
\nConsumer Foundation Institute (YLKI) Zumrotin K. Susilo and
\neconomic columnist Winarno Zain. Former chief prosecutor of the
\ninvestigation against former president Soeharto, Chairul Imam,
\nand former South Kalimantan Prosecutor's Office chief Gaguk
\nSubagyanto are also among the names.<\/p>\n
Both the 1999 Law on Clean and Good Governance and the
\ngovernment letter of intent to the International Monetary Fund
\ncall for the establishment of an independent commission to audit
\nstate officials' assets.<\/p>\n
The Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) rejected all the 45
\ncandidates, saying their composition was designed simply to
\nsatisfy the major factions within the House.<\/p>\n
"We reject the composition of the commission as its members
\nwill immediately face a conflict of interests," ICW's coordinator
\nTeten Masduki said in a statement on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Teten doubted the quality and accuracy of the fit-and-proper
\ntest conducted to screen the 205 candidates of the commission,
\narguing that some of the 45 final candidates were known publicly
\nas having bad track records.<\/p>\n
He saw the hasty approval of the candidates simply as an
\neffort to meet the deadline set in the government's letter of
\nintent to the IMF. (jun)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/officials-assets-audit-staff-named-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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