AGO must be transparent, accountable: NHK

AGO must be transparent, accountable: NHK

Muninggar Sri Saraswati
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

The National Law Commission (KHN) has branded the Attorney
General's Office as the most secretive component of the legal
system in the country and must therefore reform to regain the
public's trust.

KHN secretary-general Mardjono Reksodiputro said on Tuesday
that the Attorney General's Office had assigned a group of
experts from the commission to help it carry out a reform
program.

"The office has expressed its willingness to undergo reform.
The public must now monitor its progress and decide whether or
not it has the intention to implement reform measures," he told a
press conference following a discussion, held by the KHN in
cooperation with the Partnership for Governance Reform.

The Attorney General's Office is the last institution to have
been offered assistance by the Partnership to carry out reform
measures, after the Supreme Court and the National Police.

Harkristuti Harkrisnowo, a KHN member, said the reform was
aimed at establishing a transparent and accountable Attorney
General's Office, one which also involves public participation.

"The reform must target the office's employees, who are
resistant to reform," she said.

The reform program includes the recruitment, training and
supervising of the prosecutors, Harkristuti said.

"The office needs to implement the program seriously.
Therefore, transparency is a must," she asserted, adding that the
reform in the office "will take time".

Antonius Sudjata, chairman of the National Ombudsman, said the
office has so far failed to build a good relationship with the
public.

"The office managed to respond to only 26 percent of the 122
complaints and reports from the public that we had forwarded to
them," said Antonius, who is a former deputy attorney general.

The complaints usually deal with the alleged misconduct or
manipulation by the office's employees.

He expected the office not only to reply the complaints, but
also to investigate the cases.

Suwarsono, the deputy attorney general of monitoring, said
that the prosecutors needed to regroup to discuss the internal
reform agenda.

"I cannot force them to comply with the reform. I have no
power to do that," he said.

Attorney General M.A. Rachman has also said that the corps of
prosecutors he is leading had been in the spotlight recently, as
the public was not satisfied with the office's performance in
upholding the law.

While agreeing that the office needed to act transparently and
independently, Rachman said in its defense, "A less-than-holistic
perspective often becomes the standard by which the performance
of the office is assessed."

Rachman himself was reported to the police by the Public
Servants' Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN) for allegedly
concealing his wealth. It remains unclear how far the police have
investigated the report.