Anti-graft court chokes on red tape

JAKARTA: The Cabinet Secretariat denied on Thursday that it was responsible for a snag in the bureaucracy that has prevented payment of salaries and allowances for judges of the Anti- corruption court.

"The decree was signed by the president on July 27. We sent it on July 28 to the Supreme Court. The official there, who got the copy, did not report it to the Supreme Court leadership until Aug. 31," Deputy Cabinet Secretary for Legislation Lambock V. Nahattands clarified.

Chief Justice Bagir Manan earlier complained that judges with the Anti-corruption court had not received their salaries because the Supreme Court had not obtained the necessary presidential decree to get the funds from the Ministry of Finance.

The Supreme Court instead dipped into to its own budget to pay the salary of the nine judges that work for the newly established court. The Supreme Court claimed that it only obtained a facsimile of the presidential decree on Aug. 31. -- JP